The Commerce and Industry Ministry is working on implementing the new Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) on 1st April. The policy, however, will still have a vision statement enabling future growth as well as provisions facilitating areas including promotion of e-commerce, R&D, district export hubs, automation, MSME support, trade facilitation, and cost reduction. The Government had been extending the previous FTP (2015–20) on a piecemeal basis. While FTPs are usually implemented for a five-year period, it is not yet certain whether the new policy will be for a full five-year period or of a different duration given the fact that it could not be executed on schedule in April 2020. It is worth mentioning here that a few days ago, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal also indicated that the new FTP could be announced soon and said officers were now focused on it.

Source: Mint February 04, 2023 17:49 UTC