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National Committee on Export Import Facilitation Constituted to implement WTO Agreement

Updated: Aug 16, 2016 08:51:21am
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National Committee on Export Import Facilitation Constituted to implement WTO Agreement

New Delhi, Aug 16 (KNN) The Finance Ministry has recently notified constitution of the National Committee on Trade Facilitation as required under the WTO agreement.

The objective of trade facilitation is  expediting  movement, release and clearance of imports and exports including goods in transit. Under the agreement there are also  provisions for customs cooperation.

The tasks before the national committee is to finalise a trade facilitation plan, develop an programme for training of exporters and importers  and suggest necessary legal changes required.

Under the National Committee there will be a Steering Committee to study the gap in compliance of the WTO guidelines and also suggest changes required in this regard. Monitoring of  implementation of the WTO guidelines on trade facilitation will also be the responsibility of the Steering Committee.

The MSME sector  has found  representation in the steering committee through FISME, the leading federation of MSME Associations.

As per the mandate of WTO, every signatory nation of the Trade facilitation Agreement has to adequately publicise the procedures,  fees etc. for international trade, make all information available through internet, set up specific enquiry points for international traders.

Following the guidelines, the foreign trade policy of 2015 – 2020  has incorporated online submission of documents, paperless transfer of cases among Government departments etc.

It is a different issues that a large number of  MSMEs complain of mis- function of the IT system and delay in clearances of documents and merchandise by one reason or other.

Trade facilitation is crucial for the MSME sector, who contribute  nearly half of the India’s total export. As MSMEs  cannot afford specialist trade consultants, they almost always suffer delays and cost escalation in foreign trade due to unhelpful attitude of the officers, complicated procedures and illogical conditions.

It is expected that the Trade facilitation bodies will also look into these issues.

The Committee to be headed by the cabinet Secretary and with members from apex trade bodies and chambers  are expected to implement the Trade Facilitation Agreement in both letter and spirit.

Commenting on the continuous drop in India’s export, Mr. Anil Bhardwaj, Secretary General, FISME, commented “ Today 80% of the international trade is linked to global value chains, where inputs are imported from most competitive country, only those operations are carried out, where the importer has competitive advantage, and the ‘semi-finished’ product is re-exported to a buyer offering best terms”.

‘Under this environment,  both the import and export should be hassle free  and any bottleneck or delay will take the order away to another shore, as happened in the case of Textiles’, he commented.

With such a scenario, the importance of Trade  Facilitation, which in simpler terms is easy and  prompt imports and exports at minimum cost, cannot be overemphasised.

Whether the National Committee under the Cabinet Secretary will be able to achieve the same to materialise the vision of Our Prime minister of ‘Make in India’ is the moot question of MSME fraternity.

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