Imports will not affect farmers: Minister

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 9. Farmers have not been hit by the import of agricultural products after the withdrawal of quantitative restrictions, according to Mr. Omar Abdullah, Minister for State for Commerce and Industry. In an informal conversation with The Hindu he said the tariff levels have been raised in most cases but not too high as India is also obliged to keep average tariffs at bound levels.

The Minister said it has, in this way, been possible to prevent any impact on domestic farmers. For instance, in the case of apples being imported from New Zealand and Japan, the Chief Ministers of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh had urged the Centre to raise import duties.

Similarly, the Punjab and Haryana Governments insisted on tariffs being raised on imported milk powder. When the bound rates for milk powder were negotiated several years ago, India faced a milk shortage. But by the time the WTO came into force, milk was available in plenty. Though liquid milk is not yet allowed to be imported, cheap milk powder began flooding the market since there was zero import duty.

The Government then went back to the WTO, re-negotiated the bound rates and has now levied higher tariff on this commodity. Imports have dried up since then, Mr. Abdullah said.

Similarly apples and other fruits are now available in the Indian market but are more expensive than the domestic varieties, owing to the high import tariff.

These are mainly consumed by the elite in urban centres, he pointed out, maintaining that there is as yet no threat to the interests of the domestic farming community.

Mr. Abdullah said another non-tariff barrier proposal being considered is to assign specific ports for import of certain goods.

This comes within the framework of World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules and is a physical import barrier as it can lead to congestion at the ports.

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Section  : National
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