2023 was a year filled with multiple developments in the trade and commerce sector of India. A range of developments were witnessed this year ranging from Foreign Trade Policy 2023, G20 under India’s Presidency, signing bilateral MoUs among other.

FTP 2023 had the key approach based on four pillars: Incentive to Remission, Export promotion through collaboration – exporters, states, districts, Indian missions, ease of doing business, reduction in transaction cost and e-initiatives and emerging areas – e-Commerce Developing Districts as Export Hubs and streamlining SCOMET policy.

DGFT implemented the Advance Authorisation Scheme allowing duty-free import of inputs for export purposes. Also, an initiative to issue system based automatic ‘Status Holder’ certificates was introduced.

The Commerce Ministry led the G20 Trade and Investment Ministerial Meeting wherein high-level principles on digitalisation of trade documents were adopted. Jaipur Call for Action for enhancing access to information for MSMEs was also issued at the meet. The leaders also endorsed a G20 Generic Mapping Framework for Global Value Chains (GVCs) which contained key building blocks of data, analysis, and representation of GVC data.

Another important development was that the PM Modi dedicated to nation the International Exhibition-cum-Convention Centre (IECC) complex in New Delhi, and urged the nation to move ahead with the principle of ‘Think Big, Dream Big, Act Big’.

Some key bilateral agreements were also made this year. India and the US held the 13th Ministerial-level meeting of Trade Policy Forum (TPF) in beginning of the year launching a new working group on “Resilient Trade” to deepen bilateral dialogue on a range of issues. Also, six disputes were resolved during the visit of the PM Modi to USA in June 2023 and last one was resolved in September 2023 during visit of the President of the United States for G20 Summit.

Also, a MoU on establishing semiconductor supply chain and innovation partnership was signed between two countries on semiconductor supply chain resiliency and diversification in view of US CHIPS and Science Act and India’s Semiconductor Mission.

India also held the first meeting of the Joint Committee (JC) of the India-UAE CEPA in June. They reviewed the bilateral trade under the CEPA, agreed to operationalise the established committees, and mutual exchange of preferential trade data on quarterly basis.

Piyush Goyal also interacted with 15 ambassadors from key African nations. The minister also addressed the 18th CII-EXIM Bank Conclave on ‘India-Africa Growth Partnership’ in June.

A few other key developments that took place in terms of building a strong bilateral relationship were Piyush Goyal’s participation in the third in-person IPEF Ministerial Meeting in California to make supply chains more resilient, robust, and well-integrated. Also, the 20th ASEAN-India Economic Ministers’ meeting was held in August to review ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement signed in 2009.