NEW EXPANDED DUTY FREE TARIFF PREFERENCE (DFTP) SCHEME FOR LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES (LDCS)
- One of the elements of the Hong-Kong Ministerial Declaration of December, 2005 has been to extend Duty Free Quota Free (DFQF) access to the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). In line with its commitments, India became the first developing country to extend this facility to Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
- India announced the Duty Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) Scheme for LDCs in the year The Scheme was announced to give support to the LDCs in their trade initiatives and upon full implementation, granted duty free access on about 85% of India’s total tariff lines and preferential access (Positive List) on about 9% of tariff lines. Only 6% tariff lines were under the Exclusion List.
- Further, to fully meet the obligations under the Hong Kong Ministerial Mandate of 2005 as well as to meet the requests from some of the LDCs for additional product coverage under the duty free list and simplification of the Rules of Origin procedures, the Department of Commerce has come out with an expanded version of the Scheme.
- Effective from 1st April, the DFTP scheme will now provide duty free market access on 96.4% of India’s tariff lines and 2% of the lines would be enjoying preferential duties. Only 1.6% of the tariff lines have been retained in the Exclusion List, with no duty concessions.
- At present, 31 out of 48 LDCs have become beneficiaries to the scheme.
- Out of this, 21 LDC beneficiaries are from Africa. These 21 countries include Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Comoros, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia.
OTHER IMPORTANT POINTS
- In order to ensure supply of quality, safe and environmentally—friendly products to our consumers, it is important that our industrial enterprises and business operators also adopt the concept of standards and technical regulations in their respective organisations.
- The WTO agreement on ‘Technical Barriers to Trade’ and the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures are the mother agreements on standards and conformity assessment at the international level.
- The Southern African Custom Union (SACU) is the oldest Customs Union in the world established in 1910 & consists of a group of 5 countries, namely, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and South Africa.
- Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) is Africa’s largest economic community comprising of 19 member states namely Burundi, Comoros, Dr. Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Swaziland, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
- A Joint Study Group (ISG) has been set up to examine the feasibility of a FTA between India and COMESA.
- The Union Cabinet has approved India’s joining the International Tea Producers Forum as a founder member.
- India has been elected as the Chair of International Coffee Organization Council.
- India has also succeeded in forming a Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs (CCSCH) by Codex Alimentarius Commission, which would harmonize quality parameters for spices, across the globe and help our exports.
