Indian government launches foreign trade web portal

Neha Dewan | The Dollar Business

Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s Minister of State (Independent Charge) Commerce and Industry, at the launch of the Indian Trade Portal

  Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s Minister of State (Independent Charge) Commerce and Industry, today inaugurated the new “Indian Trade Portal” (www.indiantradeportal.in) which will be a one-point source for details related to foreign trade such as MFN and preferential tariffs, rules of origin, and technical barriers to trade (TBT) faced by Indian exporters and importers. The government claims that the new portal will make important data available for the use of exporters and importers on the site in a user friendly way, which in turn will contribute to the ease of doing business for the industry. It will also help exporters to utilise benefits under various Free Trade Agreements (FTA). Highlighting how exports have been identified as an important sector to boost the economy, Sitharaman said that the portal would help in meeting the targets ahead. “The Government has set a target of $340 billion for the current year and I am sure that the portal would help in this direction as the exporting community would have easy access to the preferential tariffs available to them in various countries and will accordingly capture export opportunities,” she said in her inaugural address. She has also requested exporters to make best use of the portal and to give continuous feedback for further improvement. Also speaking at the inauguration, Rajeev Kher, Commerce Secretary, said that apart from tariffs, there are now a lot of new regulatory regimes which are important for the trading community to be aware of. “The access to information is constrained and not everyone within the industry is also fully in the know-how. This portal is an initiative for easier access to those communities and it will act as a base on which you can build up your foreign trade,” he said. The Indian Trade Portal is an initiative of the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry. It has been developed and maintained by Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO). It will also have a database of suppliers from India for foreign buyers, and send alerts on changes in tariff and Sanitary and Phyto Sanitary (SPS)/TBT measures for registered users. FIEO said that the portal will fulfil the need for such a comprehensive information source for Indian exporters and can help boost India’s value-added exports.  

This article was published on December 8, 2014.