New Foreign Trade Policy will be ‘different’: Minister

The new Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) to be announced by the government soon would be “different” from the earlier policies, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today

“Very soon the FTP will be unveiled. I can give you a broad idea, but not an intrinsic details. Whatever was the structure of earlier FTPs, it would be different from that,” she said while addressing a press conference on completion of the 100 days of the NDA government.

The Commerce Ministry is scheduled to announce the new five-year Foreign Trade Policy (2014-19) as it seeks to boost manufacturing and exports, among other things.

The new policy would focus on a wide range of issues, including services exports, standards and branding of products.

India’s exports in the last three years have been hovering around USD 300 billion, and steps are on to boost it further and enhance its contribution in the world trade.

All exports and import—related activities are governed by the FTP, mainly aimed at enhancing the country’s exports and use trade expansion as an effective instrument of economic growth and employment generation.

Services sector contributes about 55 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product. During May, services exports were about USD 14 billion.

During April—June period of the current fiscal, exports grew 9.31 per cent to USD 80.11 billion.

India’s exports in 2013—14 were worth USD 312.35 billion, lower than the targeted USD 325 billion.

The country’s exports stood at USD 300.4 billion in 2012—13 and USD 307 billion in 2011—12.

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