To encourage coordinated macroeconomic management, the Sarkaria Commission had recommended that the National Development Council should be transformed into a National Economic and Development Council. The time has come to set up an effective inter-governmental body in lieu of the NDC of the kind that exists in some federations like Germany so that state and Central governments can work out a joint strategy.

India, fortunately, does not depend much on exports for ensuring the growth of its economy, whereas China depends largely on exports. Countries like China whose growth has been severely affected by sudden contraction of export markets in the West have already begun to consider dumping goods in the Indian market. Our tariff policy must be formulated in a holistic manner considering the relative interests of domestic producers of primary inputs, intermediate and consumer goods as well as of consumers. The appropriate level of protection for each stage of production will have to be determined as also the strategy keeping in mind WTO and other commitments. In most developed countries, this is accomplished by an independent expert tariff commission. Setting up an independent tariff commission needs to be considered urgently. Safeguard duties also need to be imposed quickly whenever there is a spurt in imports from any source. This is a permissible measure even under WTO regulations and all countries will be using it during this recessionary period. Data regarding imports available with customs authorities should be watched and analysed on real time basis preferably by the Tariff Commission and the Department of Commerce to prevent the domestic market from being swamped with cheap imports.

... contd.