ET2003 ⁽¹²⁾

The United States has proposed that all tariffs on non-agricultural goods be reduced to 8 percent or less by 2010 and to zero rate by 2015. This offers India a gloden opportunity to either make a huge economic gain or win a major tactical victory. But will Arun Jaitley, India's new Commerce Minister act? February 26, 2003 For more than four decades, developing countries have sought to eliminate developed-country barriers against such labour-intensive products as textiles, clothing and footwear. Until recently, they have had little success. Instead, during 1970s and 1980s, they saw the barriers rise. Bigger developed countries including the United States, European Union and Canada created a system of country-by-country quotas on the imports of textiles and apparel under the so-called Multi-fiber Arrangement. They also maintained unduly high customs duties, referred to as "tariff peaks," on labour-intensive products. As a part of the Uruguay Round Agreement, developed countries finally agreed to dismantle the MFA quotas by the end of 2004. This process has been under way albeit at a snail’s pace since 1995. But no agreement exists as…

Policy changes in India are no longer by stealth. Indeed, Kelkar has now brought the process out of the diwan-e-khaas to diwan-e-aam. Critics of his reports have been unsparing but are they right? January 29, 2003 Following the conclusion of the consultation period, the Kelkar taskforces have submitted their final reports. Criticisms in the press notwithstanding, Kelkar must be applauded for his innovation of the process of reform as well as the reform itself. For the first time in India’s reform history, Kelkar began by placing his preliminary recommendations before the public in the form of consultation papers and actively sought its feedback. Though some reacted cynically arguing that the papers were merely trial balloons, having observed the process function efficiently in other countries during his various stints abroad, Kelkar genuinely wanted to move the policy making in India out of the diwan-e-khas into the diwan-e-aam. And judging by the numerous e-mails and memorandums to the taskforces and opinion pieces and commentaries in print and electronic media, the experiment has been a resounding success. For their part, in the final…