Paras Kharel looks beyond simple economic theoretical benefits from the revised trade treaty (2009) between Nepal and India. The devil in the trade deal is getting clear!
What has also been overlooked by Nepal is the non-binding nature of the provision for waiver of additional duties other than that counterbalancing an excise duty. That India “shall consider” waiver at Nepal’s request does not make it mandatory for India to remove it. Our negotiators have been caught napping. And there is more to it. The possible waiver of such additional duties being applicable only to products of “medium- and large-scale” manufacturing units leaves open the room for applying them on products of small-scale units. In addition, the Protocol to Article I says that the two sides “shall undertake measures” to “reduce or eliminate” non-tariff, para-tariff and other barriers that impede promotion of bilateral trade. This weak formulation does not entail a binding commitment to categorically eliminate such barriers.
The list of primary products qualifying for duty-free and quota-free access has been expanded to include floriculture, atta, bran, husk, bristles, herbs, essential oils, stone aggregate, boulder, sand and gravel. But it was unnecessary to list some of the products as they were already eligible for preferential treatment—for example, the existing list of eligible primary products included flour (atta is one type of flour) and forest produce (herbs come under non-timber forest products). There is a need to make the list clear and precise, based on standard international classification, to remove ambiguities and arbitrariness in interpretation. As things stand now, either country can impose customs duty on products not mentioned in the list, whereas the very first point on the list reads “agriculture, horticulture and forest produce and minerals which have not undergone any processing”—which is quite all-encompassing. Besides, Nepal’s strategy should be to add value to products such as herbs and essential oils through processing rather than exporting them in raw form.
It has been agreed to calculate value addition for Nepali manufactured products to get preferential access to India on a free-on-board, rather than ex-factory price, basis. This is of little help as stringent rules of origin—30 percent value addition and change-in-tariff heading at 4-digit level—that are beyond Nepal’s current level of industrialization and supply capacity have not been relaxed. The quantitative restrictions slapped since 2002 on four Nepali products—vegetable ghee, acrylic yarn, zinc oxide and copper wire rod—remain. Indian manufactured goods, meanwhile, will continue to get preferential treatment from Nepal without having to meet any rules of origin.
See this blog post for additional information.
