Foreign Trade Policy under review

The government is taking necessary steps to further reduce the licencing time for exporting sensitive and dual-use Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment and Technologies (SCOMET) from India.

The government is in the process of reviewing its Foreign Trade Policy and has invited suggestions from stakeholders, said Vijay Kumar, Additional DGFT of the Commerce and Industry Ministry at the National Conference on Export Controls 2019 organised by FICCI on 17 July 2019.

Kumar said that the government has simplified many policies in the last year and strengthened its e-platform to facilitate licencing of sensitive and dual-use exports.

“We have been successful in reducing the average time for issuing an authorisation. But still we are not satisfied and are taking necessary steps to further reduce the time to issue licences,” he said.

For this, the government is adopting and adapting international best practices, he added.

Indra Mani Pandey, Additional Secretary (D&ISA), Ministry of External Affairs, assured India’s commitment to ensuring non-proliferation of sensitive and dual-use materials, equipment and technologies.

In furtherance of this objective, India has recently joined three key multilateral export control regimes. These are Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), Wassenaar Arrangement (WA) and Australia Group (AG). The country has also joined the Hague Code of Conduct, he said.

“The government and industry partnership is essential for implementing a strong and robust export control system. There is no doubt that industry is the first and the most critical line of defence against proliferation. I would like to urge the industry to look at export controls as an enabling obligation,” he said.

Pandey said that the government is keen to encourage exports of sensitive and dual-use goods and technology but wants to ensure that exports by Indian entities do not reach wrong destinations.

The Ministry has been engaged in regular outreach to various segments of Indian Industry.

Further, flagging the dual-use nature of new and emerging technologies, he conveyed that India has taken a lead in focusing the global attention on developments in science and technology in the context of disarmament and non-proliferation.

India’s membership to the multilateral export control regimes have led to liberalised treatment of controlled exports from US to India, said Matthew S. Borman, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration, Bureau of Industry and Security, US Department of Commerce.

Further, with India being designated as a Major Defence Partner (MDP) and receiving the STA-1 authorisation, it has now become a partner in High-technology commerce.

“We have laid the ground-work for continued robust high-tech trade whether its biotech, chemicals, aerospace, defence or space,” Borman said.

Dr S.R. Rao, former Senior Advisor to DBT, Ministry of Science and Technology, said that biotechnology has become very challenging in terms of securing biodiversity and export controls should be better understood to deal with this challenge.

Dr Anupam Srivastava, Non-Resident Fellow, Henry L. Stimson Center said during a panel discussion on Regulating Trade in Advanced Technologies, that export controls are one of the vital enabling conditions for value added manufacturing and services, which in turn help realise the true potential of the ‘Make in India’ initiative. fiinews.com