Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

Sensitivities of Kerala's agricultural sector kept in view while negotiating India-ASEAN Trade Agreement: PM assures Kerala delegation

The India-ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement has completely protected the interests of farmers in Kerala by insisting on a large Negative List of tariff lines under which no tariff concession whatsoever would be provided to the ASEAN countries. This reassurance was given by the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh and the Commerce Minister, Shri Anand Sharma to a delegation of political representatives from Kerala headed by Chief Minister, Shri Achuthanandan.

The India-ASEAN FTA negotiations were twice suspended primarily because of India's insistence on providing strong protection to its agriculture and labour intensive sectors

The proposed Trade in Goods Agreement has a Negative List of 489 tariff lines of which 302 are of the agriculture sector. These include many of the items of interest to Kerala such as Cashew Nut Kernels, Natural Rubber, Marine Products such as Tunas, Shrimp, Prawn, etc. The list has been drawn up after a series of consultations with the stakeholders and government agencies.

As far as tariff concession on Palm Oil is concerned, India has agreed to reduce tariff on Crude Palm Oil (CPO), Refined Palm Oil (RPO) to 37.5% and 42.5% respectively by December 31, 2018. Incidentally, the current tariff on CPO and RPO are 0% and 7.5% respectively. Thus, it would be seen that India has negotiated a very high level of protection for our domestic edible oil producers by proposing a high level of tariff even at the end date of December 31, 2018.

The Commerce Minister said that as far as the plantation economy is concerned, there are some structural deficiencies and these are being separately addressed.

Regarding Rubber plantations, an assistance of Rs.32.33 crore under the Rubber Plantation Development Scheme with a target of 30000 hectare is in operation under the 11th Plan and the replanting subsidy has recently been enhanced from Rs.19500 to Rs.29250 per hectare. Further enhancement is also being examined.

A proposal for rejuvenation, replanting, value addition, marketing etc. of pepper is under the active consideration of the Government. This scheme would enable India to compete with any future imports of pepper.

Prime Minister told the delegation that a Group of Ministers with representation from Ministers from Kerala is being set up to ensure that the interests of Kerala are fully protected in the ASEAN -FT A Agreement and the Group would also consult with the Chief Minister of Kerala on matters relating to interests of Kerala. Prime Minister also mentioned that Kerala has always benefited from its outward orientation and when it sought global opportunities.