Govt mulls panel to resolve exporters' issues, boost shipments

We are planning to form a committee which will meet every six months to tackle the issues relating to exporters, says Nirmala Sitharaman

The government is planning to form a committee to tackle issues related to exporters as well as boosting outward shipments, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said.

"We are planning to form a committee which will meet every six months to tackle the issues relating to exporters."

"Apart from others, this committee will have members from the exporting community too and will ensure how problems being faced by exporters can be addressed effectively," Sitharaman said at the Dun & Bradstreet awards here last evening.

The proposed committee will ensure that there is ease of doing business for exporters and will also act as a problem-solving and redressal suggestion team for the government, she said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious 'Make in India' programme will not be effective unless exports also catch up, she said, pointing out that ramping up exports requires a lot of work.

With traditional export markets like Europe and the US showing uneven recovery, the government is betting on emerging geographies in Latin America, South-East Asia and Africa to fuel exports growth, the Minister said.

The Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with various countries will also give a fillip to exports, she added.

"We are working on FTAs, which till now have not been leveraged by exporters much to their advantage," she told PTI.

However, Sitharaman declined to give a targeted number for exports in FY16 and also declined to comment on progress on the FY15 target of USD 340 billion.

Complementing exporters for quality improvement over the years, she said our exporters are facing problems not because of poor quality products, but because access to markets is restricted.

"Our access to overseas markets is restricted not because our exporters are found lacking in quality or product diversification, but because of the protectionist measures of those countries which want to keep our exporters at a distance so as to help their own exporters or protect their smaller and upcoming industries," the Minister said.

The government is making every effort to remove these obstacles to make it easier for people to do exports, she added.