India has promised South Korea that the the restrictions on duty free gold imports from the country, which it imposed in August, “are a temporary measure to discourage importers from flouting norms and would be eventually removed”, Art of Jewellery reports.
The restrictions are allowed under the existing bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries. An official in the Indian government is quoted in BusinessLine as saying: “We understand that such import restrictions can’t be in place in perpetuity in a free trade pact. The South Korean government is upset with India over the measures put in place by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade. The Commerce Ministry has given its assurance that these would be removed as soon as its apprehensions on third-country imports coming into India are taken care of”.
The restriction were put in place in an attempt by India to check spurt in inbound shipments of precious metals from that country, after a sudden surge in imports of precious metal from South Korea, with which India has a free trade agreement since January 2010. Gold imports from South Korea jumped to $338.6 million between July 1 and August 3 this year. The import in 2016-17 stood at $70.46 million.
