Commerce Secretary says government is committed to trade facilitation

Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher on Tuesday said that the organization is committed to trade facilitation at the CII National Council Meeting at New Delhi.

"We are committed to trade facilitation" said Kher, speaking at a session on 'An approach to foreign trade.'

"While the last few years have not been good with declining exports, there are signs that there will be reasonable resurgence in foreign trade. With changes in the global economic landscape and changing dynamics in the context of international trade, the challenge, he elaborated, is that in the next few years India has to perform strategically," he said.

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"While India continues to negotiate at the WTO and other such global platforms, it has to be well prepared to deal with the new architecture that is developing, such as the Transpacific Partnership, Transatlantic Partnership and the RCEP. Our conventional approach to FTAs is highly unsustainable, he said, and there is a pressing need to put our house in order to take on the challenges that India will now face. RCEP, he stressed, is an opportunity to become a part of the global value chain," he added.

Highlighting areas that need to be focused on, he said India needs to (i) look at diversification of markets - CIS, CLMV, Africa, West Asia, Middle East etc offer huge potential (ii) push services exports. One way could be by identifying 8 Services areas where India could be more competitive, and push them; (iii) look at projects exports, which offer huge potential and (iv) focus on standards and technical regulations if we want to graduate to higher markets.

He also said that a more comprehensive foreign trade policy that goes beyond the reward scheme approach is being put in place.

"A significant amount of work is required to address issues related to Ease of Doing Business, infrastructure, digitization and studying the negative impact of FTAs to address its negative impact in order to prepare a policy that is conducive to boosting exports and enabling India to be a key player in the global marketplace. Additionally, he emphasized, mainstreaming of exports in Departments and State Governments is critically important for exports to get the attention it deserves. Reviving SEZs will also give exports a fillip," he added.