NEW DELHI: The Board of Trade, headed by the Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Anand Sharma, and noted industrialists like Anand Mahindra, Azim Premji and Y. C. Deveshwar will meet on August 10 to discuss the forthcoming Foreign Trade Policy (FTP).
Official sources said the Board of Trade (BoT) would meet on August 10 in order to work out a consensus on the new FTP likely to be unveiled during this month. Exporters, facing slump in demand in the major markets of the U.S. and EU, are expecting incentives in the FTP.
Members of BoT
The president or secretary-general of national chambers like the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) are ex-officio members of the BoT.
India’s exports are on the downslide since October 2008 due to a slump in demand in major economies, including the U.S. and the European Union.
Among others, the Secretary in the Departments of Commerce and Revenue and Ministries of External Affairs and Textiles are members of the Board.
The government also nominates up to 25 persons, including 10 trade experts, to the BOT, which also commissions studies for boosting India’s external trade.
The country managed to post exports worth $168.7 billion in 2008-09, which is a meagre 3.4 per cent over the previous fiscal.
Source : The Hindu