The Hindu : Joseph seeks ban on rubber import

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 09, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

Joseph seeks ban on rubber import

By Our Staff Reporter

KOTTAYAM July 8. The Kerala Congress(J) chairman, P. J. Joseph, has called upon the Union Commerce Ministry to take a pro-active role in reinstating the earlier status of ban on import of natural rubber against advance licensing.

Mr. Joseph who met the Rubber Board chairman the other day, pointed out that the board has to play its role effectively in this regard.

According to him, to be effective, the ban should be imposed immediately.

The internal market price of natural rubber was competitively positioned against the ruling international price.

As such, any move on the part of the manufacturers to import rubber would be with the ulterior motive of pushing down the price.

This year's projected production is 6.85 lakh tonnes. Taking the one-lakh tonne stock also into consideration, it is estimated that there would a surplus of 80,000 tonnes this year.

The prospective import by the manufacturers would be aimed at creating artificial glut in the market, he said and pointed out that on the strength of the imported rubber they would be able to keep away from the internal market and bring down the price reaping enormous profit at the cost of the grower.

As such, steps to ban import should be taken without delay, he added.

The KC(J) leader pointed out that the Supreme Court directive against the ban was on technical grounds.

The court had found that the Directorate of Foreign Trade, which had issued the order banning import against advance licensing, was not the proper authority, the KC(J) leader said.

It was also made clear that the Commerce Ministry was free to issue fresh orders in this regard.

Mr. Joseph said the two MPs of the party, Vakkachan Matathil and Francis George, would be meeting the Commerce Minister, Arun Jaitley, to take up the issue with him.

He wanted the State Government to put enough pressure on the Central Government to expedite action to ban the import.

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