Get real with targets

The credibility of foreign trade policies will improve if they are not obsessed with setting export targets

The Union government’s latest foreign trade policy, announced late last month, has received wide-ranging comments from experts and the exporting community. However, an important aspect of the new policy that has not yet received adequate attention pertains to the aspirations that the government believes the new policy should help exporters realise in the next few years.

The new policy has set a target of achieving exports of goods and services worth $2 trillion by 2030. Measured by any yardstick, this is an ambitious goal. The government estimates exports of merchandise goods and services in 2022-23 at $770 billion. Meeting the 2029-30