No products identified for low tariff cut, clarifies Govt

New Delhi, Mar 16 (UNI) The government today categorically denied that the Agriculture Ministry had identified 80 products for lower tariff cut.

Denying a news item in a section of the press, it said the report was ''factually incorrect in many important respects and created a misleading impression.'' In a joint statement issued on behalf of Union Commerce and Agriculture Secretaries, the Government said the Department of Commerce and the Department of Agriculture had very closely coordinated in the Agriculture Negotiations of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha Round since 2001 and had followed a commonly evolved approach on all issues, without any exceptions.

On the specific issue of Special Products (SPs), the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration of 2005 was very clear, they said.

It states, inter-alia, '..Developing country members will have the flexibility to self-designate an appropriate number of tariff lines as Special Products guided by indicators based on the criteria of food security, livelihood security and rural development. pointed out.

The only comprehensive proposal on indicators has been tabled by the G-33 group of countries, of which Indonesia is the coordinator and India, China, the Philippines and 42 other developing and least developed countries are members.

Once substantive discussion on these indicators was concluded among the member countries of the WTO, only then would each developing country be able to use them to self-designate an appropriate number of tariff lines as Special Products, said the two ministries.

''Thus at this stage, the question of discussing specific numbers of Special Products for any country does not arise and is far too premature,'' they sought to clarify.

UNI