The commerce ministry's latest thinking on these lines is expected to be reflected in the revised Exim policy to be notified by commerce minister Ramakrishna Hegde on March 31.

As per the agreement reached with the European Union and several other developed countries under the aegis of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) some months ago, these items are to be phased out by the year 2002 only. The issue is under dispute with the US.

Half of the 2,400 items are already allowed to be imported freely through the special import licence (SIL) route, though the measure according to WTO amounts to quantitative restrictions.

This means there are only 1200 items waiting to be shifted to the SIL list first and to the freely importable listthereafter. Following changes announced in the Exim policy on April 13 last year, 227 of 436 items had been transferred from SIL to the free list and 99 from the restricted to the free list. Included in the transfer were about 100 items shifted in a similar manner in January 1998.

The shifting meant that the country had gone far beyond its commitment to the WTO as only about 300-400 items were to be transferred from the restricted to the free list as per the commitment.

The items shifted to the free list included marine items like shrimp (scampi), macrobactium, frozen prawns, frozen crabs, oysters and dried quids; processed foods like apple juice, mango juice, cherries, apricots and lemonade; chemicals like trimellecit anhydride isolphythallic acid, synthetic enamel, other colours, dispersion paints, sandal wood oil in bulk form, agar oil, sindur, bindi, kumkum and medicated soaps.

In 1996-97, about 460 items were transferred in a similar manner in line with the commitment to the WTO. The transfer fromthe restricted to the SIL list will provide some incentive to exporters by way of a hike in the premium. Adding more items to the SIL list will result in an increase in the premium SIL commands in the market.

So far, roughly 8,000 items have been transferred from the restricted to the open general licence (freely importable) list. Items in the free list will, however, be subject to customs duties.

If the country wants to be integrated with the global economy, it has to lift all quantitative curbs on imports and resort to tariffs to prevent excessive imports and thereby protect the domestic industry, say experts.