By Mahua Venkatesh
New Delhi, Jan 11 (IANS): India is not likely to immediately lower tariff rates even as the US and European Union (EU) raised their concerns over "rising trade barrier" as sources said that the steps have been taken to eliminate instances of dumping. They said that the prime concern of the government is protection of the domestic producers. However, the Narendra Modi government, in a bid to increase imports of critical raw material required to manufacture finished products, is ready to have a relook into the import duties of key raw materials and if need be, lower them to boost their availability.
"This is aimed at increasing necessary supplies of input materials for Indian manufacturers," an insider said.
Recently, the US, EU along with China have registered their concern over India's rising trade barriers.
"We have to protect our own interests first and whatever ‘trade barrier' is being talked about is within the ambit of the WTO guidelines. Any country is entitled to take such measures which include anti-dumping duties and several economies have implemented those steps," Gopal Krishna Agarwal, the BJP's national spokesperson on economic affairs, told IndiaNarratives.com.
Agarwal said that the focus is to promote the Atmanirbhar Bharat programme.
"Promoting the Atmanirbhar Bharat scheme, however, does not mean that India does not want to integrate with the global supply chain. We are keen looking at every possible way to see how well our manufacturers get integrated into the global chain," he said.
Several manufacturers have been complaining about non availability of raw materials.
"The issue of non availability has come up and the government is now looking at addressing them," another insider said.
Earlier, the Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO) pointed out that supply side challenges must be addressed at the earliest to ensure healthy growth in the exports sector. According to the an 8 per cent growth in the exports is critical to achieve the milestone $5 trillion economy.
India keen to ink bilateral trade deals
Besides, India, which has not signed any trade agreement since 2012, is now actively working towards inking bilateral trade agreements with its key trade partners including the EU, UK and the US.
Even as New Delhi opted out of the China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), it is keen on inking trade deals with other economic blocs, a highly placed source said, adding that India could gain significantly amid a growing anti-China sentiment in many parts of the world.
The EU is India's largest trading partner accounting for 11.1 per cent of total Indian trade, on par with the US and ahead of China (10.7 per cent).