New trade policy to focus on untapped markets: Minister

New Delhi, July 18 (Inditop.com) India’s new foreign trade policy will be unveiled next month and will focus on diversifying the country’s merchandise exports to untapped markets, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said Saturday.

“We will look at diversification,” Sharma told reporters here, after a meeting with representatives of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), kicking off the deliberations with stakeholders ahead of formulating the new foreign trade policy.

“We have been discussing this with the industry. Those continents that have not been traditional destinations of Indian exports should be covered. We will be putting some more emphasis on that,” Sharma added.

He said the new trade policy would contain a mix of fiscal incentives as well as simplification of procedures, even as the government may announce some new measures while deciding to continue certain others.

“We are still in the process of consultations with stakeholders.”

The minister also met representatives of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), export promotion councils and leading exporters as part of the deliberations ahead of the foreign trade policy.

The meeting came against the backdrop of India’s merchandise exports continuing to decline, down 33.2 percent at $10.74 billion in April, and 29.2 percent lower at $11.01 billion in May.

“Exporters are optimistic that the new foreign trade policy will provide a clear roadmap for competitiveness of Indian products while addressing its long term as well as short term issues,” said FIEO president A. Sakthivel.