Tools for Promoting Exports
The role of trade policy as a tool of economic development has attained considerable significance in India, specially in the post-reform period. This has happened because the economy has witnessed a tremendous upsurge in the wake of globalisation and driven by a fiercely competitive market system. In this background, the paper examines the amendments incorporated in the basic framework of the five-year trade policy (2002-07) commencing on 31 March 2003. It also takes into account the trade related changes introduced through the Central Budget 2003. The paper has been organized around five major themes of the new trade policy, viz. identifying thrust areas for exports, strengthening vehicles of exports, rationalising incentives, reducing transaction cost, and involving states in export promotion. It attempts to examine the changes under each of them at length. It accesses the impact of these changes on country's export performance during 2003-04 in particular and, towards meeting the objective of one per cent share in world export by March 2007 in general. It also briefly indicates the areas such as labour laws in which the policy failed to take concrete initiatives.