Comments
The Board of Trade, chaired by Commerce & Industry Minister Mr Anand Sharma, is likely to meet soon before finalising the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) to discuss measures to arrest the slowdown in export growth and contain the rising trade deficit.
The Board of Trade, BoT, the top advisory body on external trade includes industry leaders like Mr Anand Mahindra and Mr Y C Deveshwar. Other members include TVS Motors Chairman Mr Venu Srinivasan, Ashok Leyland Managing Director Mr R Seshasayee, Apollo Tyres Chairman and Managing Director Mr Onkar S Kanwar and Hero MotoCorp Managing Director Mr Pawan Munjal. Biocon Chairperson and Managing Director Ms Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and FIEO Chief Mr Rafeeq Ahmed are also on the board.
The BoT is likely to meet before the announcement of FTP, which is likely to take place in mid-May, a senior official in the Commerce Ministry told PTI.
“The views of the board will be included in the FTP...both the government and the industry leaders will discuss ways to maintain India’s export momentum amidst global economic uncertainties mainly in Europe,” the official added.
The US and the 27-nation European Union are among India’s biggest export destinations. These markets together accounted for about one-third of the country’s total exports.
The BoT would also deliberate on the “procedural simplification and policy measures to mitigate fallout of the adverse scenario”, the official added.
“While exports have shown a growth of 21 per cent in 2011-12, the momentum is difficult to maintain in 2012-13 as the situation in Europe is still not good,” an industry official said.
From a peak of 82 per cent in July, export growth slipped to 44.25 per cent in August, 36.36 per cent in September, 10.8 per cent in October and 3.8 per cent in November, 2011.
However, exports grew 6.7 per cent in December, over 10 per cent in January and 4.3 per cent in February.
While exports during the last fiscal aggregated $303.7 billion, imports increased to $488.6 billion, leaving a highest-ever trade deficit of $185 billion.
The government has fixed a target of doubling the country’s exports to $500 billion by 2013-14. The Commerce Ministry has come out with a strategy paper for achieving the objective.
Diversification of the export market is seen as one of the important strategies for accelerating India’s external trade.
The government has been providing sops for exporters exploring new markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.