November 7: Disinvestment Commission chairman G V Ramakrishna on Friday felt that the government and industry should together study the implications of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement and work out methods to implement their obligations.

Addressing a two-day round table on ``Uruguay Round Agreements Implications for International Trade in Technology based products'' organised jointly by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) here, Ramakrishna said.

India has not yet given adequate though to conform to the various provisions in the WTO agreement.He said the government and industry should engage legal expertise to study the implications so as to ensure that the India is not adversely affected by the agreement.

Ramakrishna added that India should study how other countries, particularly the developed ones, are implementing their obligations using sophisticated means to minimise the adverse effect of the agreement.He cautioned that there would be certain level of dilution of economic sovereignty due to the obligations enshrined in the agreement, and that the governments of countries should recognise that.

The disinvestment commission chairman further added that the country should make up its mind about the stand it should take on issues related to WTO, particularly the balance of payment (BoP) stipulations. He said it one thing to talk about the $30 billion foreign exchange reserves and take the plea that the country could not comply with the conditions of quota restrictions which were linked with BoP.

Referring to the interpretation of export incentives given to promote exports as subsidies of sort by certain governments and the consequent charge of countervailing duty on imports, Ramakrishna said India should explain to WTO and contracting parties as to how export these incentives were different from subsidies.

Ramakrishna also pointed out that the country was yet to set up a National Accreditation body for certifying achievement of WTO standards.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.