The New Foreign Trade Policy will come into effect by April 1, 2020, a senior official from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said.

At a conference hosted by CII Telangana on ‘Managing enterprises and Capitalizing on FTAs & TFA in today’s challenging economy’ here on Thursday, G Seetharam Reddy, Additional DGFT and Development Commissioner, AP Special Economic Zone, Visakhapatnam, requested industry to give suggestions which will help the government formulate the policy.

He said the DGFT was committed to help industry in the ease of doing business. There are several export promotion schemes and the exporters must reap the benefit out of them.

Highlighting the importance of the Trade Facilitation Agreement, Reddy said it is a facilitation agreement and will help exporters improve their supply chain management. Exporters should also capitalise on Free Trade Agreements (FTAs).

The DGFT is committed to multi-lateral trading system and is currently reworking on making the schemes compliant with the WTO guidelines.

In his keynote address, Bipin Menon, Additional DGFT, Department of Commerce, said trade agreements are inevitable but it is important to strategically look at agreements that are useful.

Today, over 50-60 per cent of the imports into the country under FTAs are raw materials for the industries. He urged industry to engage in trade agreements so that it can reap the benefits of incentives and leverage the opportunities.

Automation, digitisation, innovation and branding are imperative for the industries and the industries must adopt them to thrive and grow.

Yerram Raju, Advisor, Telangana Industrial Health Clinic Ltd (TIHCL), said: “the economy is currently facing a downturn but industry must turn it into an opportunity. When challenges are converted in opportunities, businesses grow.”

Given the uncertain economic scenario, it is necessary to handhold, mentor and counsel MSMEs, he said.

 

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