‘India should target Europe, Latin American nations’

Our Economic Bureau

New Delhi, May 17: WITH the slowdown in the US economy, India should now focus on Europe and Latin America to sustain the tempo of export growth, commerce minister Murasoli Maran said.

In a meeting with Indian heads of missions to Latin American countries on Thursday, Mr Maran said, “Irrespective of whether it is a hard landing or a soft one for the US economy, its implications on our exports cannot be overlooked. Latin America and Europe are our obvious options.”

He said that efforts should be made to exploit the enormous untapped potential of Latin America and step up export to the region from $1 billion to $3 billion. There should be a vision of achieving at least 1 per cent of share in exports of these economies from the present meagre share of 0.33 per cent, he said.

Indian ambassadors of seven Latin American countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela are presently touring India to discuss ways in which India’s exports to the region could be promoted.

The minister told the heads of missions that the government would look for policy inputs from them on trade opportunities in the region and said that they should play a more proactive role in trade and economic cooperation.

The meeting was also attended by minister of state for commerce Omar Abdullah, joint secretary (commerce ministry) in charge of Latin American countries DK Mittal and India Trade Promotion Organisation chairman and managing director Rathi Vinay Jha.

Mr Maran asked mission heads to draw up strategic plans for focussing on the size of markets, details of market segments. The plans should also have information about competitors, he said. “The missions must provide commercial intelligence, including anticipated policy changes which could create new trade opportunities.”

Mr Abdullah said that the Latin American region had not been properly looked at in the past, despite its tremendous potential. He added that the possibility of getting into Free Trade Agreements with Chile, Andean, Caricom and Mercosur was being examined. Commerce secretary Prabir Sengupta said that the commerce ministry had been in touch with the missions for working out country-specific and product-specific plans for the region.

Mr Maran said that the new market access initiative announced by the government in this year’s Exim policy to assist the industry would be concretised soon.

The fund would be used by the government to assist industry in product market research, collection and dissemination of market intelligence information, setting up infrastructure for product display and setting up Indian emporia at selected centres for product display.