Rules of Origin to be rationalised: Pillai

New Delhi, Mar 4 (UNI) The government has commissioned a study to rationalise various provisions in Rules of Origin (ROO), contained in many agreements, to come with a unified measure that can be universally applied for all agreements.

''The step would immensely simplify the rules and help Indian business,'' Commerce Secretary G K Pillai said while inaugurating a seminar on free trade agreement (FTAs) and preferential trade agreements (PTAs) on Indian textile and clothing industry.

Even as the discriminatory quota regime has come to an end, Indian textiles continue to face non-tariff barriers in major markets including the EU, Turkey, South Africa and the US. The US 'Rules of Origin' is one of the major concerns for exporters as it is indirectly affecting them.

Mr Pillai called upon the Indian industry to be more agressive and proactive in trade negotiations conducted at the time of FTAs and PTAs so that their interests are not bypassed by the agressive postures of the developed countries.

Explaining the different stages of FTAs and PTAs negotiations that the country has embarked on, the Commerce Secretary said in the case of SAFTA, India being the major player in the region and trade balances are tilted in its favour, it is expected that the country will make unilateral concessions.

The large number of goods in the negative list in SAFTA should be pruned and the neighbours should be given some concessional market access to the large Indian market to help them achieve their economic potential, Mr Pillai added.

Regarding SEZs, he, said he was in favour of a speedy decision and implementation. At stake is large investment and employment. In textile SEZs alone, investments worth 1.1 billion dollars has been received, which can create 80,000 jobs, Mr Pillai said.

Joint Secretary Ministry of Textiles Quasier Shamim said the textiles exports during April-December 2006 has grown only by 10.6 per cent, much below the grwoth rate in 2005-06, which clocked 22 per cent in dollar trems.

He, however, said the country will be able to achieve the export target of 19 billion dollars during 2006-07.

UNI