According to a report by the LDC Group at the WTO, about 85 per cent of about 11,000 products offered at zero tariff by India to least developed countries (LDCs) under the duty-free quota free (DFQF) scheme of the WTO remains unutilised.
About Duty free quota free (DFQF)
- The decision to provide duty free quota free (DFQF) access for LDCs was first taken at the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial Meeting in 2005.
- The decision requires all developed and developing country members declaring themselves in a position to do so, to provide preferential market access for all products originating from all LDCs.
- India became the first developing country to extend this facility to LDCs in 2008 providing market access on 85 per cent of India’s total tariff lines to better integrate LDCs into the global trading system and improve their trading opportunities.
- The scheme was expanded in 2014 providing preferential market access on about 98.2 per cent of India’s tariff lines to LDCs.
- India offers 11,506 preferential tariff lines to LDCs of which 10, 991 are duty-free.
- According to WTO data for 2020 presented in the report, 85 per cent of the tariff lines show zero utilisation rate compared to 64 per cent by China and only 8 per cent demonstrate a utilisation rate of above 95 per cent against 17 per cent by China. ”
