Foreign trade policy 2023 to facilitate greater trade, boost manufacturing: FIEO president Sakthivel

Terming the foreign trade policy as a dynamic without an end date, the FIEO President said it maintains policy continuity with a window for the trade and industry to ensure a responsive and nimble approach. (Representative Image)

The new foreign trade policy will facilitate greater trade, boost manufacturing and help in making the rupee a global currency, the president of apex exporters' body FIEO A Sakthivel on Friday said.

The Foreign Trade Policy 2023 was unveiled by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday. It will come into effect from April 1, 2023.

Terming the FTP as a dynamic without an end date, the FIEO President said it maintains policy continuity with a window for the trade and industry to ensure a responsive and nimble approach.

Sakthivel said that India has been continuously touching record-high exports, as the country's FTP has contributed immensely to this illustrious export performance.

He said that the focus of the FTP 2023 has been mainly on four pillars, including moving on from incentives to remissions, and export promotion through collaborations.

"The policy has rightly emphasised key elements, including ease of doing business with a reduction in transaction cost and e-initiatives," he said.

Online approvals with a physical interface, reduction in user charges for MSMEs under advance authorisation and EPCG, e-certificate of origin, and paperless filing of export obligation discharge applications will not only reduce the transaction time and cost but will also help exporters in the timely discharge of the export contract, he added.

He requested the government that a 3-6 months transition period may be provided, whenever a major change is notified in the Foreign Trade policy so that the existing contract can be executed factoring in the prevailing benefits.

Unlike the practice of a five-year foreign trade policy, the FTP 2023 is without an end date and will be updated as per the requirement.