China’s WTO membership may aid Indian exports

S Venkitachalam

New Delhi, Dec 12: China's accession to the World Trade Organisation will be beneficial for Indian exports as conditions in respect of market access and tariffs in China are expected to show a substantial improvement, say commerce ministry officials.

After a 15-year wait, China became 143rd member of the WTO on Tuesday. Officials, however, do not see any immediate impact of this on the Indian industry as both India and China have already been exchanging the most-favoured-nation treatment since the signing of the bilateral agreement in Beijing in February 2000. Moreover, after its entry into WTO, China is to grant concessions “unilaterally” without any reciprocal commitments from India and any other WTO member-country, officials point out.

They said that New Delhi’s policy will focus on making the Indian industry globally competitive, in addition to regular monitoring of imports, particularly consumer goods.

The fourth WTO ministerial conference in Doha decided to accept China’s accession instruments indicating the terms and conditions. Subsequently, Beijing accepted the Doha protocol making its accession to WTO complete on Tuesday.

In terms of the bilateral agreement, China is to grant several tariff concessions and advance the year of binding these tariffs to 2003 or earlier. The agreement was signed during the visit of commerce and industry minister Murasoli Maran to attend the sixth session of Indo-China joint economic group on economic relations and trade, science and technology in Beijing in February 2000.

During the discussions, the Indian side sought deeper concessions on more than 120 items, which accounted for more than 80 per cent of India’s exports to China in 1998. Beijing promised to remove tariff measures or put in place mechanisms for phasing these out, resulting in greater market access for Indian products.