Govt may include Europe, US in focus market scheme: DGFT

MUMBAI: With India's exports declining for the eighth month in a row in May and the need to arrest the decline assuming urgency, the Government may convert the US and Europe into focused markets, a top official said.

"We have been trying to help exporters diversify their markets in the last few months. There is a need to arrest decline in exports...we may have to convert the US and Europe into our Focus Market Scheme," Director General of Foreign Trade, R S Gujral, told exporters in an open-house meet organised by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), here today.

Introduced in April 2006, the Focus Market Scheme (FMS) aims to offset high freight cost to certain select international countries with a view to make India more competitive in those markets.

It allows duty credit of 2.5 per cent of FOB (free-on- board) value of exports to countries that are identified as Focus Markets by the Government.

Contracting for the eight month in a row, India's exports declined by 29.2 per cent in May over the same month last year as overseas shipments took a hit due to the economic slowdown in major markets like the US and Europe.

Exports dropped to USD 11.01-billion in May from USD 15.55-billion in the same month last year.