India takes steps to boost exports

       India yesterday announced a new foreign trade policy combining fiscal incentives and procedural reforms to counter a trend of declining exports.
       Hit by the global economic downturn,India's exports have dropped by more than 30% since January. Labour-intensive sectors like textiles or gems and jewellery have been hit hard with thousands of job losses reported.
       Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma announced a host of measures as part of the new five-year trade policy.
       "The immediate objective of this policy is to arrest and reverse the declining trend of exports and to provide additional support, especially to sectors which have been badly hit by recession in the developed world," he said.
       The minister said India wanted to achieve annual export growth of 15% in the 2010-11 financial year with an annual export target of $200 billion by the end of the year, which finishes March 31,2011.
       Sharma said in the final three years of the trade policy's period, the country was expected to return to 25% annual export growth.
       India's merchandise exports for 2008-09 grew by a mere 3.4% year-onyear and, valued at $168.7 billion, fell far short of their $200-billion target.
       The long-term policy objective is to double India's share in global trade by 2020 from its 2008 share of 1.64%.
       To meet this objective, the government would pass a mix of measures, including fiscal incentives, institutional changes,procedural rationalisation and efforts for enhanced market access across the world, Sharma said.
       Export-related infrastructure would be improved, transaction costs lowered,a constant credit flow ensured and full refunds would be provided of all indirect taxes and levies to encourage exports,he said.
       Sharma said the policy aimed to give a special thrust to labour-intensive sectors that had seen job losses in the wake of the recession, such as textiles,leather and handicrafts.
       The trade minister said the recently signed free trade pact with South Korea and a similar agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which was expected to come into force January 2010, would help boost exports.
       Sharma also said India remained committed to a successful end to the Doha round, the latest round of World Trade Organisation talks.
       "We are in favour of establishing a rule-based, fair and equitable global multilateral trading regime which has development as its core objective,"Sharma said.
       "However, it must respond to the aspirations of millions of people of the developing world."
       India is scheduled to host an informal meeting of trade ministers from at least 30 countries in New Delhi on September 3 and 4 in efforts to take forward the stalled Doha talks.