Taking a dig at Europe, Brazil Thursday suggested the European Union to outsource all their calculations to India's computers and mathematicians as the Latin American nation dismissed the allegation that the two countries were fooling everyone on reduction in industrial tariffs.
"The EU must outsource their calculations to Indian computers and mathematicians," Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said when asked to react on the EU charge.
Asserting that the EU should not "penalise developing nations for their unilateral liberalisation", he said cuts from bound rates were part of the Uruguay Round package, which had led to steep reduction in their industrial tariffs.
"Bound rate reduction principle is a part of WTO and July Framework both," he said, while supporting India's view.
Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath's statement Wednesday that the EU made a "calculation mistake" evoked a sharp reaction from the trade block.
The EU issued a statement, asking the media not to get fooled and said tariff cuts in industrial goods for India and Brazil were 29 percent and 16 percent respectively.
Nath had said that the EU had proposed 77 per cent and 75 per cent tariff cuts by India and Brazil respectively while fixing only 24 per cent for itself in industrial goods.
Meanwhile, Indian industry has also flayed the EU proposal to measure value of tariff reduction by the extent of cut in actually applied tariff rates, instead of bound rates.
"EU's insistence on 'new market access' on the basis of reduced applied duties is totally uncalled for and we urge the Indian Government to strongly oppose such a move," said Federation of Indian Chanbers of Commerce and Industry Secretary General Amit Mitra.
