Centre to come up with a single trade body to promote exports: Report

The Centre is working on creating a single trade body to promote India's exports with a focus on specific products and markets to achieve exports of $2 trillion by 2030, a report by the Economic Times (ET) said. The body is likely to be called Trade India.

The ET report added that the body will replace several export promotion councils and will be on the lines of the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency of South Korea (KOTRA).

Last month, the Centre unveiled its new foreign trade policy (FTP 2023) setting a target of achieving $2 trillion in exports by 2030. The previous foreign trade policy for 2015-2020 had targeted exports of $900 billion by 2020. This target was extended along with the policy for three years till March 2023.

The FTP 2023 aims at process re-engineering and automation to facilitate ease of doing business for exporters. It also focuses on emerging areas like dual-use high-end technology items under SCOMET, facilitating e-commerce export, and collaborating with States and Districts for export promotion.

The new policy introduced a one-time Amnesty Scheme for exporters to close the old pending authorizations and start afresh.

It also encouraged recognition of new towns through the "Towns of Export Excellence Scheme" and exporters through the "Status Holder Scheme". The FTP 2023 aims at facilitating exports by streamlining the popular Advance Authorization and EPCG schemes and enabling merchanting trade from India.

The deliberations on the broader aspects of the trade body have started and a final structure is expected to be announced soon.

"The centralised body will bridge the gap between the Centre and the industry, and work on a comprehensive roadmap with annual targets set to achieve the $2-trillion export mark," an official aware of the matter told ET. "Besides, it will also be responsible to direct all funds to EPCs, including the market access initiative grant."

The body will promote new exporters and identify bottlenecks for existing products.