Portal that promises to boost
India’s trade with EU
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| Sitting on the dais from
right: Mr. A. Sahasranaman, Advisor, OTAT, TIDP; Dr. D. Kebschull,
Chief Programme Coordinator-TIDP, Dr. R.K. Dhawan, Chairman, FIEO(NR)
andMr. Ajay Sahai, Director General, FIEO.
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A report on the interaction of FIEO and Export Promotion Councils with Technical Assistance Team under the TIDP on the upcoming EU-India Trade Portal
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In order to strengthen EU-India trade ties, the European Union and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India have embarked upon a Trade and Investment Development Programme (TIDP) since January 2006. This Euro 13.35 million programme has a two-year implementation span and is expected to be completed by December 31, 2007. The primary objective of this programme is to increase trade and investment between the two regions. Among the many problems affecting the prospects of increased trade and investment between India and the EU, lack of reliable information on policy, procedures and specific investment opportunities has been considered to be an important one. Accordingly, one key component of this programme is to upgrade one of the existing trade portals with the required information. Within the overarching objective of assisting India to build an economic environment for enhancing its trade and investment with the European Union, the TIDP seeks to facilitate traders and investors of both the EU and India in easily accessing relevant information electronically and also interact with their potential clients. The Overall Technical Assistance Team under the TIDP, in cooperation with FIEO, organized an interactive meeting with Export Promotion Councils on December 19, 2006 at Niryat Bhawan, New Delhi. The objective of the meeting was to familiarise the prospective users with the contents of the upcoming Trade Portal and to elicit their views and suggestions on how best to make the Portal user friendly. Dr. R K Dhawan, the Northern Region Chairman of FIEO in his welcome address said that though a number of websites existed in the country, it was often not possible to get the kind of information that the trade and industry needed. He also observed that while creation of a trade portal was considerably easy, its continued and timely updation was the key to its success. Dr. Dhawan suggested that the Trade Portal should not only contain trade information but also non-trade issues including non-tariff barriers affecting global trade. "The rules and regulations of different members of the EU should be properly presented so that the exporters have prior knowledge of the trade rules and regulations before sending their shipments to these countries," Dr. Dhawan added. Mr. A. Sahasranaman, Advisor, OTAT, TIDP, in his address stated that though from India’s point of view, trade with and investment from the EU were significant, from the EU’s point of view, India had a small share of their total trade and investment. One key reason for the low penetration of EU member countries into India is lack of reliable information and so the Trade Portal should address this challenge, he advised. Dr. D. Kebschull, Chief Programme Coordinator-TIDP, while underscoring the rationale of TIDP and the Trade Portal component, observed that Indian economy offered enormous opportunities for trade & investment. "India’s global trade, not significant a few years back, has now grown into a considerable size and is of the order of about 30% of India’s GDP." Dr. Kebschull said. He also acknowledged that the global trade was increasingly becoming an important instrument of economic growth of India. At the same time he said that in order to further increase trade with and investment from the EU, it was necessary to make available relevant information to both Indian and EU traders and investors. "EU has 25 members, to be increased to 27 by 1 January 07 and likely to touch 30 soon. Against this background, Trade Portal indeed has a crucial role to play in further augmenting trade and investment between the two regions." Dr. Kebschull added.
A power point presentation was then made by Ms. Stefanie Pfeffel, Team Leader, Trade Portal component of Icon Institute, Germany. The main features of the Trade Portal listed by her were:
Dr. R K Dhawan, initiating the discussions that followed the power-point presentation, said that match making was a good idea and it could begin with the star exporters who are members of FIEO. Meanwhile, he wanted to know if the SPS regulations including those of packaging would be provided by the Portal. He wanted the Portal to provide information also on labour regulations of importing countries. In response, Mr. Sahasranaman said that while SPS data would be part of the Portal, since no importing country had imposed any restrictions relating to labour laws of exporting countries and such restrictions were imposed by the importers themselves, these might not form part of the Trade Portal. Nevertheless, he assured to see how this requirement could be addressed. FIEO Director General Mr. Ajay Sahai during his address suggested that the information to be given on the Portal should be commercially viable for the trade. "It should be a one-stop shop for all information relating to EU and India," said Mr. Sahai. He also suggested that the Portal could be linked with the websites of Export Promotion Councils and Commodity Boards which generally contain sufficient information on product specific trade regulations but need to be updated. The representative of Plastic Export Promotion Council suggested that the details on anti-subsidy investigations initiated by EU should be posted on the Trade Portal. Recently specific guidelines had been issued relating to wood packaging and such information should also be made available, he added. The representative of the Council for Leather Exports observed that with 63% of India’s leather exports going to EU, it was an important market for them. "Recently anti-dumping duty was proposed against safety shoes export from India to the EU but timely intervention by the CLE had led to the EU dropping the proposal," he informed. He wanted the Portal to provide all import regulations of EU member countries. The representative of CAPEXIL stated that there was inadequate knowledge about the scope of their Council among the importing countries. On this, Dr. Dhawan said that the procedure for registering pharmaceutical companies differed from one country to another. Such information should be made available at the Portal, suggested Dr. Dhawan. The representative of the Carpet Export Promotion Council suggested that floor coverings should be brought under Textiles and Clothings, a sector selected for priority concentration under the Trade Portal component. He informed that India had 30% of the share of global market in this category. The AEPC representative recommended that the Portal should be up-to-date and interactive. Generally the information available on various websites was too old for commercial exploitation, he said. The Deputy General Manager of National Centre for Trade Information informed that his was an organization created by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry as a Section 25 company. "It is self sustaining organisation and provides information to the trade on request and on payment." He said. He further mentioned that the HS code was universally applicable upto the six digits but beyond that there were variations. "This has to be kept in view." He remarked. Summing up the proceedings, Mr. Ajay Sahai said that FIEO would be willing to associate itself with this component fully and if the Portal could provide an access to FIEO, then the relevant information from the Trade Portal could be disseminated among members of the Federation.
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