Commerce Min panel reviews export sector

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today reviewed exports performance but said any change in the foreign trade policy would be made "only after around two and a half years" for any mid-term course correction.
The statement assumes significance as the country's exports are in the negative zone since December last year.
The Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry held its meeting at Goa today and reviewed India's trade performance during the current financial year.
Quoting Sitharaman, the ministry in a statement said the foreign trade policy "has been formulated with a long term focus and the Ministry would think on any changes only after around two-and-a-half years for undertaking any mid-term course correction".

She said the policy has provided a direction so that India should not be just an exporter of raw material but should have presence in the world's markets in value added services.
The minister also said that focus was being given on sectors such as pharma, IT, gems and jewellery, textiles, fruits and vegetables and meat exports to improve India's exports to China.

The Commerce Minister highlighted the concern that China has been making efforts to stall India's exports through non-tariff barriers such as phytosanitary stipulations and standardisation issues.
She assured the committee that the government was fully geared up to meet the challenges through exports on account of slowdown in the global economy.

Director General, Foreign Trade (DGFT) Anup Wadhawan apprised the committee of the India's trade performance in the current financial year.
DGFT also gave a detailed presentation highlighting the important provisions of Foreign Trade Policy 2015-2020.
Trade deficit for merchandise and services together was USD 130.7 billion in 2012-13. It has improved to USD 68.5 Billion in year 2014-15.
Sitharaman highlighted that Foreign Trade Policy (2015-2020) had a sharper focus recognising that in the present scenario of global slowdown, reducing demand and falling commodity prices, the FTP has to be more vibrant and capitalise on the traditional strength of Indian economy.

The meeting was chaired by Sitharaman and was attended by Dinesh Trivedi, MP (Lok Sabha), Jyoti Dhurve, MP (Lok Sabha) and Ajay Sancheti, MP (Rajya Sabha).
Trivedi observed that the Ease of Doing Business is still not happening and there was a need to develop trust in the industry/ businessmen to make things easy for them.
Sancheti highlighted the challenges posed by the rapid growth in e-commerce.
He also raised the issue of import of tur daal saying that there was number of countries having abundant stock of tur daal which needs to be explored by the Commerce Ministry.