India for tighter rules of origin

The review of Asean-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITGA) will start with discussions on making the Rules of Origin (ROO) more comprehensive and detailed, as New Delhi is keen to remove the scope for exporters from third countries to exploit the preferential tariffs, a senior official said.

- MUKESH JAGOTA

• INDIA-ASEAN TRADE PACT REVIEW

“It is an agreement on trade in goods, and not services, and here, the core area is market access and ROO..so we have said (to Asean negotiators) that we should start talks on these first. Other issues are routine like trade remedies,” the official who did not wish to be identified said.

The ROO revision would be in line with the provisions in the trade agreements that are currently being negotiated, where extent of value addition in a product originating from the exporting country is different for each chapter or product.

Currently, the ROO is not a very detailed chapter in AITGA. This is seen to be still allowing businesses fro m third countries to utilise this FTA, for exports to India. “We need to look at ROO in a very different manner because different sectors behaves differently,” the official added.