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THE US Department of Commerce has announced the removal of import certificate requirement with respect to India and six other nations in eastern Europe.
The decision, announced by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the Commerce Department and notified in the Federal Register recently, means that India is now exempt from the requirement of submitting an import certificate in support of an export or re-export license.
The East European countries which were also extended the facility are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
The removal of the requirement for India was on account of the actions taken by New Delhi under the Next Steps in the Strategic Partnership (NSSP) with the United States.
"In light of the actions taken by the government of India with regard to controlled goods or technologies it imports from the United States pursuant to the US-India Next Steps in Strategic Partnership, this rule removes the Import Certificate requirement for exports to Indian government entities..." the BIS has stated.
Washington had in 2004 made a commitment to review the Import Certificate Requirement for India as a part of the United States- India High Technology Group discussions. In the course of the discussions about the barriers to high tech trade, the import certificate requirement was identified as a non-tariff barrier to expanded trade.
On the other hand, the new facility has been extended to the six East European nations for their membership in the NATO and in multiple export control regimes like the Wassenaar Arrangement, the Australia Group of the MTCT and the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Meanwhile, another dispatch by PTI from London adds: India and China will emerge as two economic powers that differ greatly economically and politically in the next two decades and New Delhi will become the "beacon of light for the developing world", according to a report.
"India has been much more efficient than China at using capital. China has invested twice as much as India over ten years and yet only achieved an average growth rate that is about 50 per cent higher than India's," the 'Shell Global Scenario' report by the leading energy company, Royal Dutch Shell, stated.
The report highlighted India's young population, vibrant entrepreneurial spirit and strong institutions as its drivers of growth.
However, it also pointed out the need for economic reform and infrastructure investment to enable a structural shift to agricultural output to higher value items, growth of manufacturing and leadership in IT services.
"China is ten years ahead of India but India is catching up," said Jeroen Van Der Veer, Chief Executive of Shell, while presenting the report in Brussels.
"An India that is far more prosperous and equitable in 2025 than it is today, must be one in which both the manufacturing and especially the agriculture sector have modernised."
The report which viewed India's economic development favourably, stressed that India's complex democracy and the social factors revolving around its ethnic and religious diversity might hinder and slow down the implementation of a country-wide economic reform policy and lead to economic disparities between various states.
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