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Duty cut on apples, walnuts, almonds will not hamper domestic trade: Govt
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Thursday, 14 September, 2023, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi
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The Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, has clarified that the reduction of duties on imported apples and other such products including walnut and almond from USA, will not hamper the domestic trade, as with the decision to resolve six outstanding World Trade Organization (WTO) disputes between the US and India through Mutually Agreed Solutions in June 2023 during the Indian PM's US visit, India has withdrawn additional duties (of 20%) on eight US origin products, including apples, walnuts and almonds.
Additional duties of 20% each on apples and walnuts and Rs 20 per kg on almonds were imposed on the US's products in 2019 over and above the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) duty as a retaliation to the US's state protectionist measure of increasing tariffs on certain steel and aluminium products.
These additional duties imposed by India on US-origin products have been withdrawn as the US agreed to provide market access to steel and aluminium products under the exclusion process.
“There is no reduction on the Most Favoured Nation duty on apples, walnuts and almonds, which still applies to all imported products, including US-origin products, at 50%, 100% and Rs 100 per kg, respectively,” reads the clarification statement issued by the Ministry of Commerce after the move was criticised by some political parties in J&K and Himachal calling it detrimental to domestic apple trade.
DGFT, earlier in May, had made an amendment in import policy for apples under ITC (HS) 08081000 by applying MIP (Minimum Import Price) of Rs 50 per kg for imports from all countries except Bhutan and this MIP will also apply to apples from the US and other countries (excluding Bhutan).
"This measure would protect against the dumping of low-quality apples and from any predatory pricing in the Indian market", the statement added.
According to the market data available with the ministry of commerce, the market share of the US apples dwindled as other countries benefited from the imposition of additional retaliatory duties on the US apple and walnut imports.
This was evident in the increase of apple imports from countries besides the US, from US$160 million in FY 2018-19 to US$290 million in FY 2022-23.
Turkey, Italy, Chile, Iran, and New Zealand emerged as prominent apple exporters to India, effectively acquiring the market share once held by the US. Similarly, in the case of walnuts, the imports increased from US$35.11 million in FY 2018-19 to US$53.95 million in FY 2022-23, and Chile and UAE became the largest exporters to India.
“In the last three years, the import of almonds has been about 233,000 MT, while domestic production is only 11,000 MT, and India is highly dependent on imports. Therefore, the removal of additional duties will now ensure fair competition among the countries which are exporting these products to India,” reads the statement issued by the Ministry of Commerce.
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