Foreign trade regulation now combines facilitation and control, with policy power centralised and civil adjudication of breaches.
The Act shifts foreign trade law toward development and regulation, empowering the Central Government to formulate and non delegably announce an Export & Import Policy and making that Policy part of the statutory framework alongside rules and orders. Contraventions are treated as civil offences adjudicated administratively; possession of an Importer-Exporter Code is mandatory; and adjudicating authorities may accept monetary settlements for admitted contraventions.

Waiver of interest on customs duty denied for prematurely debonded exclusive EOUs' imports, except in exceptional cases.
Waiver of interest on customs duty for goods imported by exclusive EOUs depends on fulfillment of export obligation; if an EOU is pre-maturely debonded without production or export, interest waiver will ordinarily be refused and will be considered only in very exceptional circumstances. This policy is to be applied by officers deciding waiver requests under warehousing.

De-stuffing and factory examination permitted for certified trading houses under customs seal, duty payment, bond and no-objection conditions.
A facility allows de-stuffing and examination of FCL containers at the importer's factory for certified trading/ manufacturing importers, provided containers move under Customs seal and, where applicable, are covered by a transit bond. The concession requires the Bill of Lading to permit factory destuffing or a container agent no-objection, payment of duties as declared in the Bill of Entry, presentation of the duplicate Bill to Central Excise Officers for seal verification and examination, and forwarding of examined Bills to the Assistant Collector (Docks); detected discrepancies will be referred for recovery or adjudication.