Centre to involve states in strategy to spur exports

he council provides a platform to the state governments and the Union territories to articulate their perspective on trade policy to help them develop and pursue export strategies in line with national foreign trade policy.The increased focus on coordinated action is important in the context of global slowdown in trade. The WTO in September downgraded its growth forecast for trade, predicting the volume of goods moving worldwide would expand 3.9 per cent this year and slow to 3.7 per cent in 2019. The Centre will involve states and industry chambers in plans to boost exports amid increasing protectionism in most markets and a trade war between the US and China which could slow down global trade in 2019.A meeting of the Council for Trade Development and Promotion is set for Thursday, and the stake holders are expected to draw up strategies to promote services, value addition in goods, organic cultivation, logistics and standards and certification."The objective was to ensure a continuous dialogue with the governments of states and Union territories on measures for providing an international trade enabling environment in the states and to create a framework for making the states active partners in boosting India's exports," a senior commerce ministry official said.Commerce minister Suresh Prabhu will chair the panel, which has representations from state ministers, secretaries of central departments concerned and heads of export related organisations. The council is a platform to develop partnership with states. The president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (Fieo), Ganesh Kumar Gupta, said issues related to credit and modern infrastructure needed to be resolved.Ajay Sahai, director-general of the organisation, said they would draw the attention of policy makers on "infrastructure and marketing, last mile connectivity issues, basic infrastructure in export clusters, focus on logistics and marketing particularly in GI products". Dailyhunthttp://www.chaipaai.com/author/jinglebeels/

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