This project has been sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and is a follow-up of an earlier RIS study on the subject. The main objective of this project is to understand the implications of negotiations to further liberalize trade of non-agriculture goods for developing countries like India to assist in the ongoing negotiations at the WTO’s Negotiation Group on Market Access (NGMA) and take note of the concerns of India and other developing countries in its work. As a part of this the database created at RIS on the industrial tariffs is kept updated and employed for simulations of implications of various proposals and modalities of tariff reduction that are being proposed in the WTO negotiations. A number of specific simulations were prepared at the specific requests of the Ministry in the preparatory process leading to Cancun and afterwards. Implications of proposals made by the Chairman, Negotiating Group on Non-Agricultural Market Access (NGMA), and one jointly by Canada, EU and the US in run up to the Cancun Ministerial were analyzed and supplied to the Ministry, among other simulations. As a part of the project, a series of analytical studies have been conducted to assist in formulation of India’s position for the ongoing NGMA process. In addition, RIS has been regularly providing consultations and comments to the Ministry on the documents and proposals made at the NGMA.

Research Team: Dr. Rajesh Mehta and Pooja Agarwal