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Expressing concerns over the country’s bilateral trade, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the government is in continuous dialogue with exporters to address the problems and challenges that are emerging due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and could lead to some kind of disruption in trade. He said that there are challenges of commodity prices, inflation, disruption in shipping lines, and container shortages.

He said ‘those challenges are there before us and that certainly may lead to some kind of disruption because it is coming along with Covid, which is also rearing its head. But we are completely on top of these issues and are in continuous dialogue and hand holding our exporters on a regular basis’. Bilateral trade between India and Russia stood at $9.4 billion so far this fiscal, against $8.1 billion in 2020-21. The bilateral trade with Ukraine stood at $2.3 billion so far this fiscal, as against $2.5 billion in the last fiscal. He added due to the war, challenges would definitely increase, but ‘we would deal with that’.

About the implementation of India-UAE free trade agreement, Goyal said the UAE has formally ratified the pact. He added ‘it (implementation of the pact) could happen anytime in the next six weeks time’. Talking about the proposed India-Australia trade pact, the minister said negotiations are going on and ‘we are working towards’ concluding the talks for interim trade pact. About the new SEZ law, he said that the ministry will start consultations with stake holders from the next month.