The Centre unveiled the Foreign Trade Policy 2023 last week. The term of the last FTP (2015-20) ended in March 2020 and now the new one, delayed due to the pandemic, aims to almost triple the country’s overall exports – goods and services combined- to $2 trillion by 2030, from an estimated $760 billion in the current fiscal ending March 31. The target sounds ambitious.

The new FTP is based mainly on four pillars – shift from incentives to remissions of taxes, collaborative approach to promote exports, push ease of doing business and focus on emerging areas. The first one is quite on expected line, with India’s export subsidy schemes increasingly coming under WTO scanner. Second, an effort to promote exports through collaboration with exporters, states, districts, and Indian Missions can result in great benefits if implemented effectively.

The new strategy will focus further on ease of doing business by digitising applications, cutting down application processing time and lowering transaction costs for the export sector. It is also a welcome decision to explore emerging opportunities such as e-commerce, transforming districts into export hubs and streamlining SCOMET policy. These policies will help the sector to keep pace with changing time.

Meanwhile, critics point out that the larger macro-economic picture has not been considered under the new FTP. It somewhat lacks depth, thoroughness and comprehensive analysis. Experts also view that structural changes in post-Covid global export order has not been taken into account. We hope, the new FTP will be supplemented with other effective policy measures time to time in coming days.

I invite your opinions.