India against import barriers, says Sharma.

The government today said it is against creating barriers against imports into the country as India itself has been opposing the protectionist policies which blocked the flow of global trade.

Our position has been clear that we are against any protectionist barriers coming up, which many countries have shown tendency to go in for, which is impacting the flow of global commerce, including India's exports to those countries," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said in the Rajya Sabha.

Answering supplemantaries during the Question Hour, Sharma said as a "matter of policy the government cannot have protectionist barriers".

However, he said the government would respond to the issue of dumping of cheap imports.

Thanks to a steep fall in the value of crude oil imports, the country's imports fell at a sharper pace than exports in May. While exports declined by 29.2 per cent in May, imports contracted by 39 per cent.

The country's trade deficit more than halved to $5.2 billion in May 2009-10 from $11.11 billion in the same month last year.