Competitiveness of Indian Oilseeds under WTO

The Indian oilseeds sector, which was protected to attain self-sufficiency, was opened up in the 1990s with economic liberalization and signing of WTO. The import of oil at low tariff levels has brought down the domestic prices of edible oils and oilseeds. This has adversely affected the economics of oilseed crops. Though tariff levels are raised in the current budget the removal of quantitative restrictions and reduction of tariff levels by 2004 would make the Indian oilseed sector vulnerable to imports. Therefore. it would be pertinent to examine the competitiveness of our oilseeds in the new trading environment. The paper found that Indian oilseeds are competitive to imports whereas edible oils are not competitive. It also suggests measures to protect the domestic growers from cheaper imports.