Exporters to meet Commerce Minister tomorrow

Exporters will meet Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma tomorrow to deliberate on the new Foreign Trade Policy that is expected to be unveiled by August and will be in force for five years.

The Foreign Trade Policy sets priorities of the government and rules for conducting import-export business.

Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia, Commerce Secretary G K Pillai and Director General of Foreign Trade R S Gujral would also attend the meeting.

"We will be discussing all issues related to the Foreign Trade Policy," Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) Director-General Ajay Sahai said.

Besides, eight export promotion councils, led by FIEO chief A Sakthivel, today held consultations with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and demanded several fiscal sops in the Budget 2009-10 likely to be presented in July first week.

During their first interaction with the new Commerce and Industry Minister, the export promotion councils and FIEO would also be making reference of the issues which came up for discussions during their meeting with Mukherjee, Sahai said.

Representatives from commodity boards and exchanges would also participate in tomorrow's meeting, he added.

The previous UPA government had announced an interim FTP in February 2009.