NEW DELHI: India is expected to take the flak at this week’s G-20 summit in London for violating the spirit of free trade by taking restrictive measures to curb imports of a wide range of products over the last few months, a government official said.

However, the officials believe that India is in a strong position to defend itself since most of the restrictions are in the form of special duties permitted by the World Trade Organization (WTO).

“The anti-dumping and special safeguard duties imposed by India on imports of a number of products, especially from China, will definitely come under scrutiny. However, the duties have been applied to check the surge of cheap imports and the procedures followed have been laid down by the WTO,” said the official, requesting anonymity.

India had imposed anti-dumping duties on products such as compact discs, colour picture tubes, CFL, acrylic fibre and some chemicals in the last fiscal. It also imposed safeguard duties on aluminum and two chemicals. The G-20 meeting that will be attended by heads of states or finance ministers of member countries will look at ways in which the effects of the ongoing economic crisis could be mitigated.

India is represented at the summit by prime minister Manmohan Singh. As long as India’s special duties are not challenged by affected countries at the WTO, there was no reason for the country to be on the defensive, said another official who asked not to be named.

31 Mar 2009, 0009 hrs IST, Amiti Sen & Deepshikha Sikarwar, ET Bureau

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com