Foreign trade policy on June 5; sops likely.

With the rupee hitting record lows against the dollar on almost a regular basis recently and the exports growth slowing down, commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma today assured the exporters that the government will “do everything” to address their concerns in the foreign trade policy (FTP) on June 5.

After a stock-taking meeting with industry and export promotion councils, the minister said that before the announcement of FTP, issues affecting exporters such as rupee depreciation cost of credit and euro zone crisis will be discussed with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.

“Wait till June 5... the government will do everything that is feasible given the pressure of resources to keep India’s exports momentum going... there are concerns, we have to take a balanced view we cannot have a situation where we end up paying higher imports bill and our exports do not grow,” Sharma said.

He said that there is a need to focus more on labour intensive sectors, “where the concerns have a clear social dimension on job creation”. Due to a weak global demand and uncertain US and Europe market, exports of gems and jewellery and ready-made garments contracted by 25.7 per cent and 9.7 per cent to $2.6 billion and $1 billion respectively in April. In March, exports contracted by about 5.71 per cent year-on year. The expansion in country’s merchandise exports, which grew by as much as 82 per cent in July 2011, came down to 3.2 per cent in April 2012 due to the demand slowdown in the western markets.

Source : indianexpress.com