2.89 — Unilateral Tariff Preferences

Under these schemes, both developed and developing countries grant unilateral tariff preferences to exports from developing countries including Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Some of these schemes are:

(A) Generalised System of Preferences (GSP):

(a) GSP is a non-contractual instrument by which industrialized (developed) countries unilaterally and based on non-reciprocity extend tariff concessions to developing countries. Following countries extend tariff preferences under their GSP Scheme: (i) United States of America (ii) New Zealand (iii) Belarus (iv) European Union (v) Japan (vi) Russia (vii) Canada(viii) Norway (ix) Australia (only to LDCs) and (x) Switzerland

(b) GSP schemes of these countries detail sectors / products and tariff lines under which benefits are available, including conditions and procedures governing benefits. These schemes are renewed and modified from time to time. Normally Customs of GSP offering countries require information in Form ‘A’ (prescribed for GSP Rules of Origin) duly filled by exporters of beneficiary countries and certified by authorised agencies. List of agencies authorised to issue GSP CoO is given in Appendix-2C .

• (c) (i) The European Union (EU) has introduced a self-certification scheme for certifying the rules of origin under GSP from 1.1.2017 onwards. Under the Registered Exporter System (REX), exporters with a REX number are able to self-certify the Statement on Origin of their goods being exported to EU under

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the GSP Scheme. The registration on REX is without any fee or charges. The details of the scheme are at Annexure-1 to Appendix-2C.

(ii) The competent Local Authorities would undertake post verification of selfcertified Certificate of Origin based on the request of the importers/customs agencies of the importing country and the fee to be changed is detailed in Appendix 2K. Agencies may charge TA and DA, as per government rates, separately from the unit.

(iii) Further, as per the conditions required to avail GSP benefit under selfcertification system, the beneficiary country needs to have a verification system of such self-certified certificates of origin. The standard operating procedure for verification of the self-certified e-CoOs, to be followed by all Authorized agencies/Local Administrators is detailed in Annexure-II to Appendix-2C.

(B) Duty Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) Scheme for LDCs:

(a) The mandate for Duty Free Quota Free (DFQF) access to Least Developed Countries (LDCs) came from Paragraph 47 of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration of December 2005. India became the first developing country to extend this facility to LDCs through its Duty Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) Scheme for LDCs which came into effect in August, 2008 with tariff reductions spread over five years. The Scheme provided preferential market access on tariff lines that comprise 92.5% of global exports of all LDCs.

(b) Subsequently in 2014, the Scheme was modified both with reference to increase in coverage as well as its simplification. This was in response to requests from several LDCs for additional product coverage on lines of of their export interest and simplification of the Rules of Origin procedures. Under the new expanded DFTP Scheme, India is granting duty free access on 96.4% of the total tariff lines, thereby retaining only about 3.6% of lines in the Exclusion and Positive Lists.For details Department of Commerce Website. and Customs’ Notification No.8/2014 dated 1st April, 2014 may also be referred to in this regard.