Redesigning of Commerce department underway, govt to set up 'trade promotion body' to promote trade: Piyush Goyal

Los Angeles [US], September 11 : Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Saturday said that the redesigning of the Commerce Department is under process and the Ministry will come up with a plan after thoroughly studying the received reports suggesting the new structure.
"We are in the process to redesign the structure of the Commerce Ministry and one of the ideas in front of us is to set up a 'trade promotion body', similar to 'Invest India'. It is a facilitation unit that will promote trade from India, for India," Goyal said while addressing a media briefing.
Responding to a question on when can 'Trade Promotion Body' --which is aimed to drive overall promotion strategy, export targets, and execution-- come into force, Goyal said, "We have just received the reports suggesting the new form of the Commerce Ministry, we will now go through the process of studying the report in great detail and then come up with the overall plan."
The Union Minister said that there were a number of suggestions on some roles that government could do to connect ideas and entrepreneurs from here with potential partners or stakeholders in India.
"We have two initiatives, 'Invest India' and 'Startup India Team' which support startups in India, connecting with the investors both in India and abroad," he said.
The Union Minister said that the partnership between the Indian diaspora and India will truly help fast-track India's journey to a developed nation. "It's great to see the energy that our diaspora has across the west coast, they want to contribute to India's development," he added.
According to an earlier statement from the Commerce Ministry, the Department of Commerce is set to undergo transformative changes towards evolving into a 'future ready' establishment of the Government with scaling up, strengthening, and infusion of 'new age' capabilities leading to an ecosystem which can achieve USD 2 trillion exports by 2030.
As part of the restructuring exercise, a dedicated trade promotion body would be set up to devise an overall strategy to achieve targets and make it future-ready," Goyal had said earlier.
He said that the focus will be on strengthening negotiations capability at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and for bilateral free trade agreements; centralisation and digitisation of trade facilitation processes and rehauling the data analytics ecosystem.
"Indian trade and commerce will not only be a strong element in India's march to prosperity, towards becoming a developed nation in the Amrit Kaal but also play an extremely important role in serving the needs of the whole world," he added.
Goyal, while releasing 'The Department of Commerce Restructuring Dossier' had said that his ministry is preparing for greater multilateral and bilateral engagement with other countries and the objective is to raise India's share in global exports and to create jobs.
Goyal said restructuring of the entire department of commerce aims at preparing India to become a key global player in world trade.
He further said the restructuring rests on 5 major pillars: Increasing India's share in global trade, assuming the leadership role in multilateral organisations, the democratisation of trade, creating 100 Indian Brands as Global Champions, and setting up Economic Zones in India to strengthen the manufacturing base and attract greater investments to India.
In February this year, a review exercise by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal called for revamping of the Department of Commerce, fortification, and consistent strengthening of trade and investment promotion bodies including the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT).
With several emerging opportunities owing to shifts in global trade dynamics like rapid growth of services and disruptive potential of climate change, the Ministry felt the need to proactively develop exports, build India's brand in global trade and undertake constant monitoring of exports to ensure the achievement of targets on time.
The revamping of the Commerce Department is also aimed at further building on its strategic direction and aspirations for the next decade and moving from inherent traditional roles to new roles by re-engineering the operation model with enhanced 'new-age' capabilities. In line with this, the revamped Department will have a more coherent trade promotion strategy with clear targets and execution accountabilities.
There will be a strengthened negotiation ecosystem with the right expertise and robust end-to-end processes with clearly defined focus areas and institutions. An optimal mix of talent with specialists and generalists sourced from across private and government sectors to create an agile setup responsive to market opportunities and exporter needs via interlinkages across bodies is in the works.
According to a project report on the designing of a 'future ready' Department of Commerce, a dedicated 'trade promotion body' to drive overall promotion strategy, export targets, and execution is proposed to be set up. A stronger active role for missions in trade promotion for market intelligence leads generation and localized research has been envisaged. Strengthening negotiations via multi-skilled negotiation teams and separation between bilateral and WTO negotiations has been envisioned.
It has also been proposed to set up a 'trade remedies review committee' including the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Finance, and line ministries for transparency in investigations outcomes. Centralization and digitization of trade facilitation processes have been recommended to drive ease of compliance and scheme administration. Rehauling the data and analytics ecosystem via centralized data management and embedded analytics capabilities in the Department of Commerce has been proposed.