Inaugurating an `Orientation and Awareness Workshop on WTO Matters,' jointly organised by the Ministry of Commerce, FICCI, GMCI and FKCCI here on Saturday, Hegde said Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha had ``indirectly'' assured him that the earlier rate would be restored. ``I simplified export procedures. Later a bombshell was dropped with the imposition of eight per cent countervailing duty which works around 24 per cent in some cases on imports. I indicated to the Government that it will kill exports. The Finance Minister has now reduced it to half,'' he added.

Hegde also called for a reduction in interest rate on export credit which was a high 11 per cent. It was possible to achieve a $ 10-$ 15 billion agriculture export target in 10 years through a concerted Centre-States effort. He stressedthat infrastructure bottlenecks needed to be to removed to achieve the 20 per cent export target.Hegde called upon trade bodies to submit a report to the Government for creation of model export processing zone. The zone, he said would be different and something akin to foreign embassies where local laws do not apply.

State govt flayed: Hegde came down on State Government for flight of industries from the State. He said he was trying for last six months to get power connection to set up a cold storage unit at the Bangalore airport for perishable goods. However the Government had not responded.

Turning to economic sanctions, Hegde reiterated that ``India need not be unduly concerned about sanctions''. Sanctions do not work as US and other countries know that India will be a world power and its market will be bigger than China. He said sanctions may result in some difficulties but the nation should gear up to face them.

He appealed to the exporters to stick to the quality of goods and also to thedelivery time. Earlier in his address, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) K K Modi said India should be ``offensive'' during its negotiations at the WTO rather than being ``defensive''.

Ministry of Commerce Special Secretary N N Khanna said five more national workshops will be held in different places. He said the Commerce Ministry would endow funds with the National Law University, Bangalore, for creating a chair to international law, trade-related disputes.