Changes in foreign trade policy in the offing .

NEW DELHI: The foreign trade policy announced last year could be amended after the directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) has completed its review of individual export sectors.

The review report will identify policy related problems and other hurdles and is expected in August, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has said.

“Once the report is available to us, we will take a considered view for policy intervention,” the minister said at a release event of a strategy paper on engineering exports prepared by Ernst & Young on Tuesday.

India’s exports started picking up since November last year, after a 13-month fall due to the global slowdown, and the ministry is hopeful that they would touch $170 billion.

“The shortfall will be less than 10% of the exports achieved last fiscal,” the minister said.

The E&Y strategy paper points out that the share of engineering items in India’s total exports is much lower than that of the developed world. It should aspire to achieve a three-fold increase in its engineering exports to $110 billion by 2014, it proposed.

The study commissioned by the Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) said that engineering exports would have to grow by 22-25 % annually for reaching the milestone.

This is a robust target and if the engineering sector is able to maintain its share of nearly 22% in total exports, $ 110 billion is certain to be achived.

Source : The Economic Times