Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal, chaired a meeting with Export Promotion Councils and Industry Associations at Vanijya Bhawan, New Delhi today. The meeting brought together representatives from the Department of Commerce, Department of Revenue, Export Promotion Councils and Industry Associations.

Discussions centred around the various Free Trade Agreements (FTA) concluded in the past, status and challenges in utilisation of such FTAs, opportunities created by the recently concluded FTAs and industry views and expectations for the proposed and ongoing FTA negotiations.

The session also featured presentations from the Department of Commerce on the performance of SEZs and the recent reforms undertaken as well as further reforms proposed. The objective of the proposed reforms was to simplify the procedures, increase economies of scales, utilise the idle capacities at SEZs to realise the objectives of the country for achieving the US $ 5 Trillion economy by 2027.

Breakout sessions were also held with Officials from the Department of Commerce, Department of Revenue and Members of Trade on ICEGATE Implementation at SEZs.

The representatives of Export Promotion Councils & Industry Associations from various sectors like Textile, Apparel, Engineering, Gems & Jewellery, Medical Devices, Services Sector, FIEO, Ayush, Leather, Assocham, etc welcomed the efforts of the Union Minister in creating the best possible Trade Environment and Market Opportunities.

Shri Piyush Goyal reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to create a facilitative trade environment through initiatives of ease of doing business, creating more market opportunities to the Indian Exporters. He emphasized that the industry should ramp up their manufacturing capabilities, diversify supply chains, reduce import dependency to realise the goal of becoming Atmanirbhar Bharat.

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Abhishek Dayal/Abhijith Narayanan

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