Piyush Goyal to chair reconstituted Board of Trade meet on Tuesday, $2 trillion export aim on agenda

The meeting comes ahead of the government likely to announce the new Foreign Trade Policy later this month and the country’s merchandise exports shrinking 1.15% in August- the first drop since November 2020.

The board includes participants from states, union territories, and senior officials from public and private sectors and provides a platform to discuss ways on boosting manufacturing and exports.

“The meeting is aimed to seek inputs from members to help us shape policies for Aatmanirbhar Bharat and reach $1 trillion each of merchandise and services exports by 2030 and improve the export competitiveness of states,” said an official.

In July, the government nominated 29 non-official members including Tata Consultancy Services Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Rajesh Gopinathan, India Cellular and Electronics Association chairman Pankaj Mahindroo and Amul MD RS Sodhi. This is the first meeting of the reconstituted board.

Industry is likely to raise the issue of Goods and Service Tax refunds, reducing the compliance burden on small exporters and ways to fund MSMEs to increase exports. Developing districts as export hubs and discussion on ways to facilitate ecommerce exports through the foreign trade policy could also be taken up at Tuesday’s meeting, sources said.