The much-delayed restart of India’s foreign trade policy, unchanged since 2015 and pending an overhaul for three years, could finally be announced by the end of this month, Trade Minister Sunil Barthwal said.
Last September, the Commerce Department had planned to announce a new trade policy, but scrapped those plans and extended “Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20” for another six months to March 31.
“During these six months, we have looked at various aspects of this policy and conducted a vision exercise while maintaining our aspirations to reach US$1 trillion in exports of goods and services each,” said Mr. Barthwal. “So, within this framework, we have drafted the foreign trade policy and expect it to be published by the end of the month,” he added.
Curb import bill
Noting the fall in India’s goods import bill in recent months, the minister said it was a reflection of Trade and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s efforts to curb unnecessary imports.
“We have worked with all ministries and shared the import figures for each product to check whether they are essential and non-essential imports. When a generic drug requires an active pharmaceutical ingredient from China, this is essential,” Barthwal explained, adding that it is also being checked whether there is sufficient domestic manufacturing capacity to substitute imports.
“But it will also depend on the global links in the supply chain. Price differences also need to be seen,” he said, adding that ministries have been asked to ban imports where possible once they have analyzed their necessity.