ternal e tor in ndia        15.19
          India--SACU (South Africa, Botswana,        improving the ‘ease of doing business’. The special
     Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia) PTA: Five        features of the FTP 2015–20 are as follows:
     rounds of negotiations have been held so far.        (i). Two new schemes have been intorduced,
     The Ninth Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC)              namely—
     meeting was held at Durban in March 2015.                 (a) Merchandise Exports from India
          BIMSTEC (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri                 Scheme (MEIS) for export of specified
     Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal) FTA: Twenty                goods to specified markets.
     meetings of the Trade Negotiating Committee               (b) Services Exports from India Scheme
     (TNC) have taken place. The 20th meeting was                  (SEIS) for increasing exports of
     held in September 2015 in Khon Kaen Province,                 notified services, in place of a plethora
     Thailand.                                                     of schemes earlier, with different
          India-Canada FTA: Nine rounds of                         conditions for eligibility and usage.
     negotiation on the India-Canada Comprehensive             There would be no conditionality
     Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) have                attached to any scrips issued under these
     so far been held. The ninth round was held in             schemes. Duty credit scrips issued under
     Ottawa, Canada by March 2015.                             MEIS and SEIS and the goods imported
          India--Australia CECA: Nine rounds of                against these scrips are fully transferable.
     negotiations have been held so far. The ninth             For grant of rewards under MEIS, the
     round was held between by September 2015 in               countries have been categorized into 3
     Delhi.                                                    Groups, whereas the rates of rewards
          Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership          under MEIS range from 2 per cent to 5
     (RCEP) Agreement among ASEAN + Six FTA                    per cent. Under SEIS the selected Services
     Partners (Australia, China, India, Japan,                 would be rewarded at the rates of 3 per
     South Korea and New Zealand): Based on the                cent and 5 per cent.
     Declaration of the Leaders during the ASEAN          (ii) Measures have been adopted to nudge
     Summit in November 2012, negotiations for a               procurement of capital goods from
     comprehensive economic partnership between the            indigenous manufacturers under the
     10 ASEAN member states and its six FTA partners           EPCG scheme by reducing specific export
     commenced in May 2013. Fourteen rounds of                 obligation to 75 per cent of the normal
     negotiations have so far been held.                       export obligation. This will promote the
                                                               domestic capital goods manufacturing
                                                               industry. Such flexibilities will help
        new foreign traDe Policy
                                                               exporters to develop their productive
     The GoI announced the new Foreign Trade                   capacities for both local and global
     Policy 2015–20 on April 1, 2015. The new five             consumption.
     year Foreign Trade Policy, 2015–20 provides a       (iii) Measures have been taken to give a boost
     framework for increasing exports of goods and             to exports of defense and hi-tech items.
     services as well as generation of employment              At the same time e-Commerce exports of
     and increasing value addition in the country, in          handloom products, books/periodicals,
     keeping with the Make in India. The focus of the          leather footwear, toys and customized
     new policy is to support both the manufacturing           fashion garments through courier or
     and services sectors, with a special emphasis on          foreign post office would also be able