Speaking to newsmen on the sidelines of the National Conference on agriculture for Kharif 2012, the Agriculture Minister,Mr Sharad Pawar Justified the move by pointing out that the government had stocks for additional exports of 1 mt.He added that the country could also consider exporting an additional one million tonnes of wheat and rice,given the surplus stocks.

While the government has permitted export of 2 mt sugar till date it gave the nod for exports of wheat and rice in September 2011 under open general licence (OGL) with no quantity restrictions.

The panel is meeting on Friday (March 9).

Interacting with newsmen,the Textile Secretary,Ms Kiran Dhingra,stressed that the government would not be imposing a similar ban on cottons yarn exports.

He was reacting to the trade data which showed exports in January 2012 up by 10.1 per cent year -on-year to $25.4 billion with imports rising by 20.3 per cent to $40.1 billion resulting in a trade deficit of $14.6 billion.

During April-January 2011-12,exports rose by 23.5per cent to$242.8 billion,while imports grew by 29.4 per cent to $391.56 billion.The trade deficit stood at $148.7 billion for the period he said and added that the deficit may touch $170 billion in view of crude price moving upward and growing imports of gold and silver.

Mr Ahmed said that government should take immediate steps to make exports competitive by reducing the cost of credit across the board for the exports sector or providing interest subvention of over a per cent to breing the export credit close to 7 per cent.

Various tax matters including TDS on Foreign agency commission,need to be clarified so as to remove any ambiguity and facility competitiveness he suggested.He also said that state governments should provide expenditious refunds of the VAT piad on inputs used in exports.Considering the current difficult scenario,he called for stability in policy regarding duty neutralisation and promotional benefits to exports.

Mr Ahmed projected exports to be in the range of $285-290 billion this fiscal.

In the Asia-Pacific volumes fell by 1.9 per cent while in North America it drop[ed by 1.8 per cent ACI said.

In Africa the freight volumes were pegged at a robust to per cent while in Latin America volumes clocked 5.4 per cent in domestic cargo movement.However international freight outside the region fell by 0.7 per cent.

“Airfreight appeared to be more elastic or sensitive to the economic situation within countries and among trading partnears,”said ACI economist,Mr Rafael Echevarne.

“As government slowly adopt austerity measurement certain economies may experience slowdown in the short run thereby having an impact on international trade.As business confidence resume so will global airfreight,”he added.

India is the world’s second largest producer of cotton and most of its shipments go to China the world’s largest user of the fiber.Export against registration certification already issued will also not be allowed the notification said.

India had already exported 8.5 million bales,higher than government estimates made in January of 8.4 million bales of 170 kilograms each for the year,on strong demand from China.Over 80pc of exports so far have headed to the Asian giant.Traders in India had signed contracts for nearly 10 million bales in total for export at $1.01-$1.03 per pound,including those already hipped.Domestic

Losses in monetary terms are yet to be assessed he said auditing that “the cargo handling in January this year has decreased by 5.4pc to 48.9 MT as compared to January 2011.THe ports which suffered losses of business include Mormugo,Haldia,Chennai,Kolkata,Paradip,Mumbai and Kandla.

The traffic handle by Mormugao port took a nosedive and recorded the maximum decline of 17.5pc in the ten-month period followed by 8.4pc dip by Haldia dock and 7.4pc drop recorded by Chennai port,the official said.Kolkata,Paradip,Mumbai and Kandla ports recorded dip 3.7pc 1.3pc,1 pc and 0.3 pc respectively.Iron ore exports from the country last fiscal came down to 97.64 million tonne(MT).In the first ten-month period of the current fiscal,exports dipped by 25pc to 52.12 depended on cargoo and iron ore contribute significantly to their business.Iron ore exports have witnessed a negative growth

The export growth rate,however was a marginal increase over December 2011,when shipment were up 6.7 per cent year-on-year.Imports on the other hand suged at the other hand surged at the rate of 20.25 per cent to $40.1 billion,leaving a trade deficit of $14.76 billion according to recent data released by the Commerce Ministry.

From a peak of 82 percent last July,export growth dropped to 44.25 per cent in August 36.36 per cent in September and 10.8 per cent in October 2011.

According to source the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs(CCEA) in a recent meeting put on hold the immediate levy of increase duties on power gear imports.”The decision to imports (higher) duty on imported power equipment is expected in the Bug-est (2012-13) as levy/duty-related decision are announced in the Budget session,”the sources said.

The move kicks off a mechanism that aims at going around Western sanctions,which have made it exceedingly difficult to conduct business with Tehran.