World Trade Organization Organisation Mondiale du Commerce Organización Mundial del Comercio

Reply: Indian Customs IPR law does not apply to goods in transit.

UNITED STATES

Follow-up questions

From the number of questions that we and other delegations asked India to answer, we can see that Members continue to seek more information about India's trade policy regime and practices. The United States places great value on the important role played by the TPR mechanism in helping Members better understand each other's policies, and invites India to continue to help the TPR mechanism fulfill that role by providing comprehensive and meaningful responses to Members' follow-up questions. We again urge India to accelerate its moves to increasing the transparency and predictability of its trade policy regime.

Among the specific follow-up questions we would like to ask are the following:

US FQ 1:

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  The United States asked about the role of international trade in goods and services –BOTH exports and imports –in India's efforts to confront its poverty alleviation (U.S. Question 9). India chose to address the export side of the equation only. We would like a response regarding the import side of the total trade equation. What role do imports play, in India's view, in addressing its poverty alleviation challenges?
  

Reply: In the last few years, the year on year growth of India's imports has been invariably much higher than that of exports leading to an increasing trade deficit. Imports are essential to meet the requirements of a fast growing economy. Our import tariff rates on essential commodities have been kept at reasonable levels to promote a fairly open economy.

The important commodities in our import basket are petroleum products, fertilizers, capital goods, chemical, gold and silver and pearls and precious stones. Some of the items have an important role in poverty alleviation as these are inputs for industries which provide gainful employment.

US FQ 2:

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  In question 16, the United States asked, among other things, whether India envisions that its long-term objective "to accelerate the export growth rate to 25% per annum and double India's share in global trade by 2020" will be attainable in the global market as it exists today, or do global markets need to grow ever larger to accommodate India's export goals? In response, India directed us to its strategy paper on the Department of Commerce website.
  

We have read your Strategy paper on-line. It, in part responds to our question. But, the Indian government, itself raises the question of how, for example, India is to address its infrastructural bottlenecks ("the single most important constraint for achieving accelerated growth of Indian exports"). The strategy paper on the website does not seem to address the question of whether India considers that the openness of its own market has an important role to play in achieving its objectives. Does India consider that the openness of its own market has an important role to play in this regard?