Anand Sharma reviews foreign trade policy

NEW DELHI: Reviewing the foreign trade policy today, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma asked officials to engage with all stakeholders to boost exports in the remaining 3-odd months of the current fiscal, 2013-14. "The Commerce Secretary informed the minister that exports are on track and the country would achieve the target of $ 325 billion for the current fiscal," an official said.

Sharma asked all the senior officials of the ministry to engage with all the stakeholders including export promotion councils to find ways to further enhance the country's shipments, the official said. Export growth eased to a 5-month low of 5.86 per cent to $ 24.6 billion in November. In the April-November period of 2013-14, exports grew by 6.27 per cent to $ 204 billion while imports aggregated to $ 304 billion.

Trade deficit for the period stood at $ 100 billion. Sharma expressed satisfaction over market diversification of exports and said that South America and Africa would contribute more to the growth of India's exports. The US move to remove Indian sectors like textiles from the list of its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) was also deliberated in the meeting.

Exports to the US under GSP Form A Certificate of Indian Origin were allowed duty-free entry. Now exports from India are subject to US import custom duties. "India have to find new ways to support these sectors, the official said. That apart, concerns were raised on certain issues related to special economic zones.

"As compared to 395 zones which are notified till now, only 175 are operational," the official said, adding that trade with Iran too came up for discussion.