By Amin Kef Sesay
In a bid to continue to take the bilateral relationship between Sierra Leone and India to a higher pedestal to be mutually beneficial to both nations, the latter expressed delight in announcing the inclusion of Sierra Leone as a beneficiary country under its Duty-Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) Scheme. A Gazette Notification to that effect has been issued by India’s Ministry of Finance on the 22nd October 2021.
The DFTP Scheme, which is available to Least Developed Countries (LDCs), provides duty-free market access on about 98.2% of India’s tariff lines.
According to the High Commissioner of India to Sierra Leone, Rakesh Arora, the decision to provide Duty-Free Quota Free (DFQF) access for LDCs was an outcome of the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial meeting held in 2005. Under that WTO decision, India became the first developing country to extend the facility to LDCs in the year 2008.
Rakesh Arora further elaborated that the Scheme was announced to give support to the LDCs in their trade initiatives. At present, there are 37 LDCs who are included in the list of beneficiaries by India. Sierra Leone is the latest edition.
