Ministry of Commerce and Industry committed to synergise Export Promotion and Internal Trade: Hon'ble Union Minister of Commerce and Industry

The Hon’ble Union Minister of Commerce and Industry & Railways, Shri Piyush Goyal, has chaired a joint Meeting of Board of Trade and Council of Trade Development & Promotion and has interacted with the industry and Agriculture Ministers of the States, Industrialists, Export Promotion Councils, and Representatives of the Economic and Infrastructure Ministries of the Central Government for boosting exports and domestic manufacturing and reducing trade deficit.

The Hon’ble Union Minister of Commerce and Industry & Railways has said that Ministries/departments can no longer work in isolation for effective outcome of government policy. He further said that action on many of the decisions arrived at this meeting will be taken in next 45 days. He said that easier availability of credit at cheaper rates to exporters will be resolved expeditiously and customs clearances will be made quicker by installing X Ray scanners at all major Ports. Robust mechanism for Track & Trace in Pharma sector will be implemented in three months, a new scheme to rebate state and central taxes and levies will be rolled out in 3 months and will be implemented in a phased manner for all sectors, he added.

During the deliberations, exporters spoke about trade disputes between the US and China, ongoing negotiations under Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), difficulties in availability of export credit. Specific action points for the implementation of new Agricultural Export Policy, reducing logistics costs, improving ease of doing business in all States, increasing domestic manufacturing and reducing imports were identified. Further, States were urged to finalise their export strategies at the earliest keeping in view their state specific requirements and advantages. The Hon’ble Union Minister of Commerce and Industry urged the State Governments to adopt Government-e-Marketplace (GeM), a one stop online procurement portal for better transparency and efficiency. The State Governments agreed to take steps in strengthening the entrepreneurship and start up ecosystem.

Following decisions were taken during the meeting:

· Investigations on imports under the anti-dumping mechanism will be expedited, particularly products of the MSMEs with the help of industry associations.

· Steps to boost exports of organic produce, and ways to rationalize the mandi fees across states would be examined.

· The top 50 tariff lines, which constitute 60% of India’s import to be examined in detail for possible ways to reduce import dependence.

· Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India (ECGC) would fast track the disposal of claims and put in public domain the pending claims for the benefit of the industry.

· Meetings with State Export Commissioners to be held on pre-announced fixed dates to discuss issues related to export infrastructure and state specific export strategies.

· Government would work with the States to develop product specific clusters for 50 sectors with high manufacturing potential.

· To leverage the railways real estate and use less utilized railway stations, the Ministry of Commerce will explore the possibility of setting up warehouses.

· The concept of deemed approval for establishments, which currently require annual renewal of licenses will be explored in consultation with States.

· Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT)/Department of Commerce (DOC) will evaluate State Governments on a ranking framework on support provided to industry for manufacturing, exports and logistics support.

· DPIIT will encourage States to leverage public procurement by implementing Make in India in Public Procurement Order.

· DPIIT will work with Industry (including apex industry association like CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM and PHDCCI) for organizing a National investor promotion event in next 6 to 9 months.

· Development of clusters for specific sectors especially for job creating industries will be pursued with States and Industry.

· Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) will create a portal which will host the Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) all over the country and link them to exporters.

The Hon’ble Union Minister of Commerce and Industry urged the industry to focus on the root cause of the problem and increase our competitiveness in terms of quality and efficiency. He assured the industry that wherever there are genuine difficulties like increased cost of credit, easy availability of liquidity etc, will be resolved expeditiously. He highlighted the achievements of the Government in terms of exports crossing half trillion mark for the first time with goods exports at all time high of USD 331 billion, “Ease of doing business” rank improving to 77 and logistics rank improving to 44th. He further added that procurement of more than Rs 25,000 crore have been undertaken by Governments resulting in huge savings.

Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent Charge) Housing and Urban Affairs and Civil Aviation and Minister of State, Commerce & Industry and Shri Som Parkash, Hon’ble Minister of State for Commerce & industry also participated in the deliberations. Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog, Shri Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and Dr Anup Wadhawan, Commerce Secretary were also present during the meeting.