 "Challenges due to Russia-Ukraine war may lead to trade disruptions: Goyal")
The government is in continuous dialogue with exporters to address the problems and challenges that are emerging due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and could lead to some kind of disruption in trade, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday.
He said that there are challenges of commodity prices, inflation, disruption in shipping lines, and container shortages.
"Those challenges are there before us and that certainly may lead to some kind of disruption because it is coming along with Covid, which is also rearing its head. But we are completely on top of these issues and are in continuous dialogue and hand holding our exporters on a regular basis," Goyal told reporters.
Bilateral trade between India and Russia stood at USD 9.4 billion so far this fiscal, against USD 8.1 billion in 2020-21. The bilateral trade with Ukraine stood at USD 2.3 billion so far this fiscal, as against USD 2.5 billion in the last fiscal.
Due to the war, challenges would definitely increase, but "we would deal with that".
When asked about the implementation of India-UAE free trade agreement, Goyal said the UAE has formally ratified the pact. "It (implementation of the pact) could happen anytime in the next six weeks time," he added.
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When asked about the proposed India-Australia trade pact, the minister said negotiations are going on and "we are working towards" concluding the talks for interim trade pact.
About the new SEZ law, he said that the ministry will start consultations with stake holders from the next month.
On disruptions in shipping lines and container shortages, Director General of Foreign Trade Santosh Kumar Sarangi said that the shipping ministry is holding fortnight meetings on the issue and is monitoring the situation.
On exports to CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) region, he said there is a port in Georgia which is still operational and it is receiving cargo.
"So that is an entry point which is still open. Exporters are also trying out other routes like Qingdao Port in China through which they are sending (goods) to other CIS countries...But to a large extent, some degree of trade to other CIS countries has been impacted," Sarangi said.
On the proposal about rupee-rouble trade with Russia, an official said that talks are going between department of financial services, the RBI and concerned stake holders to find a way on this.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)