On Course to Achieve Export Target of US $ 200 Billion 
Exports from SEZs as on 30th September 2010: Rs.1.39.841 Crore - 100% FDI Allowed in SEZs Through Automatic Route 
Year end Review of Department of Commerce

EXPORTS / FTP

India's exports have registered a growth of 26.8% during November 2010, at US $ 18.9 billion.   During the period April-November 2010, exports have reached a level of US $ 140.3 billion at a growth of 26.7% while the imports were US $ 222 billion with a growth of 24% and a trade deficit of US $ 81 billion.  India's imports in November 2010 were US $ 27.8 billion, up by 11.2%.    During April-November 2010, the following sectors have done well viz., engineering, gems & jewellery, petroleum and its products, leather & leather products, carpet, plastics & linoleum, cotton yarn, chemicals etc.

An export target of US $ 200 billion has been set for the year 2010-11. With the present growth trend, we are on course to achieve the export target for 2010-11.  There has been minor improvement in the GDP Growth rate of US, one of our major export destinations.  IMF has also projected a growth rate of 3.3% in GDP in 2010 and 2.9% in 2011 for US in comparison to the negative growth in 2009.

In the Foreign Trade Policy 2009-14, it has been stated that India's merchandise exports is expected to reach US $ 200 billion in 2010-11. In order to meet these objectives, the Government planned to follow a mix of policy measures including fiscal incentives, institutional changes, procedural rationalization, enhancedmarket access across the world and diversification of export markets. Improvement in infrastructure related to exports; bringing down transaction costs and providing full refund of all indirect taxes and levies became the three pillars, which would support to achieve the target.

Government has put emphasis on market diversification as our traditional exports have been hit badly due to their concentration in US and EU Regions. Since the announcement of FTP, 2009-14, focus had been to diversify our markets more into developing countries of Africa, Latin America and some parts ofOceania.   A recent preliminary study conducted by Federation of Indian Exporters (FIEO) revealed that the schemes, particularly the Focus Market Scheme (FMS) and Market Linked Focus Product Scheme (MLFPS) have played a key role to diversify the India's export base. Out of the 27 new countries added under FMS in August 2009, exports to 15 countries registered impressive growth despite the global slowdown.

SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES

The main objectives of the SEZ Act are:  (a) generation of additional economic activity; (b) promotion of exports of goods and services; (c) promotion of investment from domestic and foreign sources; (d) creation of employment opportunities; and (e) development of infrastructure facilities.  The overwhelming response to the SEZ scheme is evident from the flow of investment and creation of additional employment in the country. The SEZ scheme has generated tremendous response amongst the investors, both in India and abroad.  In addition to earning of foreign exchange and development of infrastructure, SEZs have also created a significant local area impact in terms of direct as well as indirect employment, emergence of new activities, changes in consumption pattern and social life, human development facilities such as education, healthcare etc. 

So far, formal approvals have been granted for setting up of 580 SEZs out of which 367 have been notified. Out of the total employment provided to 6,20,824 persons in SEZs as a whole 4,86,120 persons is incremental employment generated. The total physical exports from SEZs as on 30th September, 2010 i.e. in the first two quarters of the current financial year, has been to the tune of  Rs. 1,39,841 croreapproximately registering a growth of 55.8% over the exports of corresponding period of the previous financial year.    The total investment in SEZs till 30th September, 2010 is Rs.1,76,148 crore approximately, including Rs. 1,61,743 crore in the newly notified zones.  100% FDI is allowed in SEZs through automatic route.   A total of 122 SEZs are making exports. Out of this 69 are IT/ITES, 16 Multi product and 37 other sector specific SEZs. The total number of units in these SEZs is 3,139.

RTAs/FTAs/PTAs

India has always stood for an open, equitable, predictable, non-discriminatory and rule based international trading system. RTAs, in India's point of view, should be 'building blocks' towards the overall objective of tradeliberalisation and should complement the multilateral trading system. In the past, India had  adopted a very cautious and guarded approach towards RTAs and was initially engaged in only a few bilateral/regional initiatives, mainly through Preferential Trading Agreement (PTA) like the Bangkok Agreement (signed in 1975) to exchange tariff concessions in the ESCAP region, the Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP - signed in 1988) to exchange tariff concessions among G-77 member countries, and the SAARC PTA (SAPTA - signed in 1993) to liberalise trade in South Asia.  However, these engagements achieved limited results in terms of increasing trade volumes with the member countries.   Recognizing that RTAs would continue to feature permanently in world trade, India got engaged with its trading partners/blocs with the intention of expanding its export market since early part of this decade and began concluding, in principle agreements to move, in some cases, towards Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreements (CECA) which covers FTA in goods, services, investment and identified areas of economic cooperation.

FTAs/PTAs under Negotiation:

FTAS in Pipeline: