PM sets $500 bn trade target for 2010

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wants India to achieve a trade target of $500 billion by 2010 and so, has asked ministries to work towards removing constraints such as infrastructure bottlenecks and rigid labour laws.

Singh was addressing the first meeting of the Board of Trade today.

"The Prime Minister has asked different ministries to work on ideas suggested by the board to address constraints faced by trade and industry," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said after the meeting.

At the meeting, the board constituted five working groups to look into various aspects of trade, including evaluation of existing export promotion schemes, trade facilitation, manufacturing, special economic zones and export oriented units.

A working group, to suggest steps for achieving growth in exports, was also set up.The working groups will have to submit their reports to the ministry of commerce and industry by the next two months.

The meeting also decided that a paper on regional and free Trade agreements would be submitted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).

Speaking at the inaugural session of the meeting, Nath said India needed to define policies, determine strategies and design specific instruments to turn the country into a global economic power.

He warned infrastructure was a problem but assured that the top priority accorded to this issue by the government was a step in the right direction.

He said the board had an important role to play in forming an alternative DEPB scheme that would "neutralise" all levies -- not just Customs and excise but also those at the state level - and at the same time be WTO-compatible.

The board will also evaluate the performance of various export promotion schemes like Target Plus, Vishesh Krishi Upaj Yojana and Served from India.

New Chairman of the board Kumaramangalam Birla said it had to be ensured that taxes were not exported and that duty neutralisation schemes were WTO-compatible.

He said industry had to prepare itself to overcome non-tariff barriers like employment norms and pollution standards imposed by the developed world.