Session on Free Trade Agreements & Indian Trade Portal

Ludhiana, March 4, 2016: Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) and Joint Director General Foreign Trade (Jt DGFT) Ludhiana jointly organised an interactive session on Free Trade Agreements (FTA) & Indian Trade Portal. The objective of the session was to sensitize manufactures and service providers on the issues related to exports promotion.

While interacting with participating delegates Mr Ramakhrishnan N, Deputy Secretary, Department of Commerce, Govt. of India said, “Free Trade Agreements (FTA)’s are the mutual arrangement between two or more countries to encourage cross border trading. It help in reducing or eliminating tariffs under certain agreements and encourage non- tariff barriers to promote bilateral trade between two Nations, thus boosting their economies. Govt of India has also entered into trading agreements with various other countries. Foreign Trade Policies of India are now more focused on substantially increasing the country's share toward global market(s), for this various steps have already been taken to boost trade with the rest of the world, accordingly the policies have been revised time to time. Indian MSME plays a vital role toward in country’s GDP with a contribution of more than 40%. Indian MSME’s should also emphasize more on upgrading their technologies & quality manufacturing standards, understand global market trends and compete with global players, by doing this not only they will enhance their profits but will also contribute toward economic development of country to a large extent”.

Mr Pratik Navale, Research Associate, FIEO also gave a presentation on Indian Trade Portal, which has recently been launched by Govt on India in association with FIEO. Indian Trade Portal is an important information resource centre for all export & import related activities. It provides vital information to exporters to decide the tariff preference with other competitors under various Trade Agreements, importers can also look for most competitive source of imports for cheaper imports of raw materials and intermediate for competitive manufacturing and exports. The Portal also gives all the necessary information like FTA or other Trade Agreements signed with other nations, products codes, categorization etc and other relevant information.

While sharing his views Mr. M S Dhillon, Regional Joint Director General Foreign Trade Ludhiana said that, “The key role of Department of Commerce is the development and promotion of India’s international trade and commerce through formulation of appropriate international trade & commercial policies. The basic role of the Department is to facilitate the creation of an enabling environment and infrastructure for accelerated growth of international trade and also plays an active role to facilitate the creation of an enabling environment and infrastructure for accelerated growth of international trade. The Trade Policy is periodically reviewed to incorporate changes necessary to take care of emerging economic scenarios both in the domestic and international economy”.

Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) India & Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) actively supported the session, which was attended by more than 70 delegates from the region.