Mr Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, while speaking at a business leaders’ awards event, urged exporters and consumers not to panic over West Asia-driven trade disruptions, and announced that an inter-ministerial cargo insurance scheme — covering loss, damage and inordinate delay on Red Sea and Hormuz routes — would be unveiled soon. Mr Goyal said kerosene production has been ramped up as an LPG contingency, and that India’s foreign exchange reserves — equivalent to nearly a year of imports — provided a strong rupee buffer. He acknowledged a short-term economic slowdown but said activity would recover once hostilities cease.
On trade policy, Mr Goyal said six new FTAs were in the works — with Israel, GCC, Chile, Peru, Mexico and the South African Customs Union — alongside renegotiations of existing pacts with ASEAN and South Korea, as per a report.
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