India might be closer to its target of being a major exporter sooner, as the nation prepares to hit merchandise and service exports at a record rate this fiscal year.
On Saturday, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said that India will clinch a clutch of balanced free trade agreements (FTAs) in the coming months.
He also asked the domestic industry to take advantage of the immense opportunities that are to come its way and scale up exports.
He was addressing an interactive session with industry leaders on the Budget for FY23 in Mumbai.
It was organized by BSE. He said that the nation is set to sign an FTA with the UAE within a few days and the FTA talks with Australia are at an advanced stage.
He also added that India will launch the second round of formal talks with the UK in March for such a trade pact. Out of the nations, India approached, the Gulf Cooperation Council has evinced interest in forging an FTA with India.
As per reports, India has agreed to duty concession under the FTA with UAE in more than 1,000 products across sectors. These include textiles, garments, gems, jewelry, leather, spices, engineering goods, chemicals and poultry.
At the same time, India and the UK are negotiating for a pact that could cover more than 90% of tariff lines. Through this, both nations are trying to double bilateral trade of both goods and services to about $100 billion by 2030.
Meanwhile, in Australia, India had a deficit of $4.2 billion in FY21 on a bilateral goods trade of $12.3 billion. Minister told the gathered industrialists that the world wants to trade with India and they should use this opportunity.
He also asked the industrialists to be more proactive and flag non-tariff barriers faced by Indian exporters overseas. Only through that could appropriate remedial measures can be initiated by the government.
For example, the Indian government took retaliatory measures against Indonesia, which was not allowing tyre imports from India while it dumped its tyres here.
He was confident, that the nation will hit a record this fiscal year in the exports of merchandise and services. The goods exports will touch $400 billion and the services exports are set to touch $240 billion.
To support his expectations, the merchandise exports between April and January this fiscal year touched almost $336 billion, which is higher than the earlier annual record of $330 billion (in FY19).
This is when only two more months are remaining for the fiscal year-end.
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