West Asia crisis: Centre ensures all facilitation to exporters

New Delhi: Amid escalating tension in the West Asian region, the Centre on Monday assured that it is ready to help exporters and directed stakeholders to maintain close, real-time coordination for monitoring route, capacity developments, surcharges, and equipment availability.

The Union Ministry of Commerce held inter-ministerial deliberations with exporters and logistics players to assess the impact of escalating tensions in the West Asian region on India's trade and assured all measures to mitigate any disruptions.

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The meeting was chaired by the Special Secretary in the Department, Suchindra Misra, and Lav Agarwal, Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT).

The meeting reviewed the emerging geo-political situation and its potential impact on India's export-import (EXIM) cargo flows, including the export ecosystem.

The ministry said that stakeholders presented an assessment of the evolving operational environment, including routing and transit-time changes, vessel scheduling adjustments, container/equipment availability, freight and insurance cost trends, and implications for time-sensitive exports.

The government reiterated its readiness to facilitate trade operations, including, procedural flexibility in export-related authorisations in cases of genuine disruption, coordination with customs authorities to ensure smooth clearance, engagement with financial and insurance institutions to support exporter interests and continued inter-ministerial coordination.

"The government reiterated the Government of India's priority of ensuring continuity of EXIM logistics and mitigating any disruptions to India's trade flows," it said.

It was also emphasised that the approach will remain facilitative and coordinated, with a focus on maintaining supply chain resilience, protecting the interests of exporters-particularly MSMEs-with a view that essential imports required for domestic production and consumption are not adversely affected.

Mechanisms for facilitation of time-sensitive export segments such as perishables, pharmaceuticals, and high-value manufactured exports were also discussed.

The meeting emphasised strengthening facilitation at ports/ICDs and ensuring smooth cargo evacuation to avoid congestion and extended dwell times.

The meeting was attended by representatives from logistics operators and shipping lines/forwarders, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, the Reserve Bank of India, export promotion ecosystem and other concerned agencies.