New foreign trade policy to aid exports via e-com, farm equipment: Experts

The new Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2023, announced recently, will help in promoting exports of sectors from e-commerce, batteries for electric vehicles and farm equipment, experts said on Tuesday.

India on March 31 came out with the new policy which aimed at pushing rupee trade, increasing outward shipments to USD 2 trillion by 2030, and promoting e-commerce exports, amid global uncertainties.

Rumki Majumdar, Economist at Deloitte India, said that the policy emphasises on the manufacturing and export sectors with a long term view.

Sectors such as batteries for EVs, green hydrogen, and garment, amongst others will benefit from the policy, she said, adding that with over 80 per cent of trade being done in the USD, encouraging trade in Indian rupee will be a relief.

"It will also add to its resilience to external shocks and improve negotiating capabilities in international trade," Majumdar said.

Shashi Mathews, Partner at IndusLaw, said that through the policy, the government's focus is to digitise and re-engineer the processes to make it more business-friendly and less time-consuming.

"Some key focus areas which will reap the benefits are e-commerce, merchanting trade, green technology products like EV, farming equipment, etc," Mathews said.

The new policy would rekindle business sentiment to achieve India's aspirational target of being a global leader in exports, Sanjay Budhia, Chairman of CII National Committee on Exports and Imports, said.

"Reduction of export performance threshold in the new FTP is a welcome step as this will enable more exporters to achieve higher status and reduce transaction cost for exports. The policy has a strong emphasis on reduction of transaction costs, internationalisation of INR and e-commerce exports which could be a game changer to put India at a leadership position in the global exports map," Budhia added.