Exporters should look beyond Eurozone, explore emerging markets: DGFT

Pravir Kumar, Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), has urged Indian exporters to look beyond Eurozone and explore opportunities in Latin America, CIS nations and Africa, in the wake of the current turmoil in Greece. “When there are risks, it is extremely important to distribute risks and diversify elsewhere,” said Kumar during an Open House Meet with more than 200 exporters organised by CII in association with the Federation of India Export Organisation (FIEO).
 
On its part, the Government will continue providing policy direction, incentivising diversification and value-added exports,” he said. According to Pravir Kumar, Indian exporters will also do well by focusing on the countries with which India has a free trade agreement (FTA).
 
The volume of Indian exports in Eurozone is 18-19 percent of the country’s total exports, and that is enough reason why Indian exporters should go and take a good look at Latin America, CIS nations and Africa.
 
“In line with the Prime Minister’s Digital India call, the central government is working overtime to devise a single window clearance to make things easier for you. This is part of the government’s resolve to facilitate trade,” informed Pravir Kumar.
 
As a part of its efforts to make the process virtually paperless, DGFT has designed an app on the android platform which will give exporters an easy access to relevant information and services.
 
Sanjay Budhia, chairman, CII National Committee on International Trade Policy & Exports, spoke of the yawning trade deficit and cited data which states that the annual trade deficit in the Asia's third-largest economy reached $ 137 billion in the 2014-15 fiscal – from $ 135.8 billion in the preceding year.
 
“This puts tremendous pressure on the economy. The achievements in export of services, specifically IT (information technology) and business services and huge remittance receipts alone are not capable to bridge the gap,” explained Budhia, who is also the managing director of Patton International Ltd.
 
Raising concern about the declining exports from India, Ramesh Kumar Agarwal, vice president & regional chairman (Eastern Region), FIEO, said, “We are much concerned as the decline may be now in volume as well which serious ramifications. The government needs provide support to the export sector at this crucial stage.”
 
According to Pallavi Kaul, chairperson, CII West Bengal State Council, in the growing trade imbalance, India needed a futuristic policy to revive export oriented industries in the country. It is a ground work for India’s involvement in international trading engagements and global value chain. Proper market and product or service strategy has been described in the policy for the enhanced participation of Indian industries in global trade. In doing so, high importance has been given to trade facilitation, reducing cost of trade and improving ease of doing business.
 
These policy initiatives are in line with making India as a hub of global production. Due consideration has been given to standards and conformity assessment. This is a critical area because if we cannot produce products or services as per international best practices, we will not be able to get access to certain markets. In this integrated trade regime, technical barriers affect trade in both value and volume terms more than tariff based trade barriers do.
 
The industries have been encouraged to import capital goods and technologies that in turn help to build domestic capacity and competitiveness. In the same respect, some of the low value added and scrap products have been dis-incentivised. This is to be remembered that the government’s focus has been to make India as a producer of products and services in the higher end of value chain. This migration will not happen over the night. Together with policy incentives, it requires constant effort to improve our production processes and service deliveries. The Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20 has laid down a roadmap towards this goal.