Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the free trade pacts India is negotiating with partner countries and trading blocs such as Australia and the EU will give Indian exporters better access to the global markets and improve exports.

“Exports have been affected because of global head-winds. The drop in exports is more in terms of value than volume. I had a meeting with several export promotion councils today who gave suggestions on how exports can improve which we will look into,” Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at a press conference on Tuesday.

The Minister said that India was close to concluding an FTA with Australia and the EFTA countries (Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and was also keen on fast-tracking negotiations with the EU – which would all serve to increase markets for Indian exporters.

“On the European Union, I want to make it clear that the trade negotiations will progress post the EU summit in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also European Union’s Presidents were present. The Summit was very productive and we hope to move fast on the FTA with EU,” she said.

The Minister said she will be writing to EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom “to ask her to quickly arrange for meetings with our chief negotiators and theirs so that the progress on EU trade negotiation can happen rapidly as much as we are now trying to move on Australia too.”

Issues raised by exporters in the meeting include non-tariff barriers faced in other countries, currency volatility, problems in dealing with customs authorities and imposition of service tax.

“We requested the Commerce Ministry to at least add some markets (in the export promotion schemes) where there is better scope where the decline is not so much, Federation of Indian Export Organisations President SC Ralhan said.

India’s exports have been falling for the last fifteen months, with a 16.73 per cent fall posted in the period April-February 2015-16 with exports at $238 billion.

Related Topics