Foreign Trade Policy Of India: Formulation, Guiding Features And Implementation
Adv. Mary Gills D Costa, LLM, Bharata Matha School of Legal Studies, Choondy, Aluva
ABSTRACT
India's Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) is the principal instrument through which the government shapes the country's export and import framework and its integration with the global economy. This article traces the evolution of India's trade policy from the licence-controlled, import-substitution regime of the early post-independence decades, through the liberalising Export- Import (EXIM) Policy of 1992, to the present open-ended Foreign Trade Policy 2023. It examines the institutional and legal architecture through which the policy is formulated, centred on the Directorate General of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and grounded in the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992. It identifies the guiding principles of contemporary trade policy export promotion, remission-based support, digitalisation, decentralised export promotion, sectoral targeting, and new trade formats such as merchanting and illustrates them through key policy examples, including the Districts as Export Hubs initiative, the RoDTEP scheme, and the FTP Amnesty Scheme. It also critically analyses the role of the Central Government, Department of Commerce, Directorate General of Foreign Trade and Customs authorities and examines important judicial decisions relating to foreign trade policy. The article concludes with consolidated findings and suggestions, arguing that the policy's success in reaching the government's two-trillion-dollar export target by 2030 will depend on sustained inter-agency coordination and deeper integration of states, districts, and small exporters into the export ecosystem.
Keywords: Foreign Trade Policy; DGFT; Export Promotion; India; Trade Regulation; FTP 2023, FTDR Act, exports, imports, trade facilitation, foreign trade regulation, international trade.
