Articles by C Satapathy

The unbundling of the Singapore issues and the jettisoning of all but one, trade facilitation, has led to an 'explicit consensus' to commence negotiations on the issue on the basis of specified 'modalities'. Some of the major concerns of developing country and LDC members seem to have been taken on board, even though many others are yet to be addressed. A useful starting point for the new Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation may be the work of the Boksburg Group in identifying the needs and concerns of a wide cross section of developing countries and its suggestions on the elements of an agreement.

Simplification of trade procedures results in substantial gains for the economy. But it cannot be achieved by making ill-thought-out, ad hoc and cosmetic changes. There is an urgent need to create a small organisation at the national level which can take a comprehensive look at all aspects of simplification of trade procedures. It will be useful to look at how other countries have gone about simplifying trade procedures. SITPRO, the UK organisation that deals with simplifying trade procedures, seems to be a good model to study and emulate.

Can Singapore with its spare investible resources and expertise in building infrastructure act as a window of investment to eastern India as Hong Kong has been to southern China, making the latter a hub of great industrial activity? Much depends on the political leadership in India, at the centre and in the concerned states.

The Schedule to India's newly-enacted Prevention of Money Laundering Act is marked by some significant omissions. It contains no references to offences relating to tax evasion, smuggling, foreign trade law violations and foreign exchange manipulations on account of these offences. Proceeds of crime relating to these offences, therefore, will remain outside the scope of the new law.

In sharp contrast to the perpetual grumbling in India about the WTO and the assertions now and then that India would be better off walking out of the organisation, China is making concerted efforts on all fronts to take the maximum advantage of its entry into the WTO.