New Foreign Trade Policy on Wednesday

The New Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) to be announced on Wednesday will chart out ways to increase exports, especially in the services sector, a senior official said.

The FTP, which is usually announced in April, provides guidelines for enhancing exports with the overall objective of pushing economic growth and generating employment.

Declining for the straight third month, India's exports fell by over 15 percent to $21.54 billion in February, even as the trade deficit narrowed to $6.85 billion on the back of declining international crude oil prices.

The commerce ministry did not hold the customary Board of Trade (BoT) meeting chaired by the commerce minister before finalising the NFT, a senior official told IANS.

BoT members include top industry leaders and representatives of exporters body Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) and export promotion councils and their views are included in the FTP.

In connection with India's trade relations with major partner like the US, Foreign Policy magazine said last month that the growing political cordiality between both nations may soon give way to a trade war as simmering disputes between them retake the centre stage.

Among the key sticking points is their positions on intellectual property protection (IPP).

While "large, deep-pocketed American pharmaceutical companies with powerful lobbies in Washington want India to strengthen its regulatory regime," the Foreign Policy said Indian generics manufacturers "fear that they will lose much of their business if India adopts US-style patent protection".

The IPP issue resides at the heart of the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free trade agreement among 12 nations in the Asia Pacific accounting for 40 percent of world gross domestic product and one-third of world trade.

Both China and India are currently outside the TPP.

Intellectual property regulations would be at the core of the TPP's potential negative impacts on India, the Foreign Policy said.