New Delhi, Jan 17 (KNN) While India has signed ambitious Free Trade agreements with major trading partners such as UAE, Australia and Mauritius and more FTAs are being negotiated with UK and EU, Indian industry has not fully recognized and realized the potential, says Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal.        

Speaking at the meeting of the Board of Trade- the apex body of trade under Ministry of Commerce and industries, he called on industry to aggressively explore and exploit the new market access opportunities created by FTAs while the industries in partner countries have more nimble footed. 

“The recent FTAs such as India-Mauritius Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA), India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (IndAus ECTA) are opportunities waiting to be realized’, he said.  

The Board of Trade comprises apex chambers and national trade bodies such as FICCI, ASSOCHAM, CII, FISME, LBU and EPCs. 

He emphasized the need to expand exports  as Internationalization of industry proved beneficial for inducing quality and achieving scale which helped make industry competitive.         

Exhorting the Ministry to look beyond the traditional export promotion measures, Goyal directed them to equally focus on export of services, e-commerce exports and greater use of  GeM portal for boosting both domestic and international trade.       

He also asked trade and industry representatives to contribute to engage with the trade analytics team set-up by the Ministry of Commerce to analyze trade measures adopted by partner countries and spot opportunities and threats.

“In the spirit of 'Jan-Bhagidari' and citizens’ involvement, join forces with the Government to keep a close watch of possible misuse of FTAs to obviate injury to domestic industry and contain imports”, Goyal asked.           

The meeting of the Board was held amidst rising uncertainties in global trade.  The volume of global trade has  shrunk by 7.5% (Dec-Jan 2023), Indian trade has remained marginally positive and grew by 0.4% during the period.  

However, the regional conflicts and recession in western market pose a serious challenge for growth of merchandise trade.

(KNN Bureau)