He said the country aimed to achieve export growth of 18 per cent in 2001-2002, the same target it set for the previous year but added the slowdown in the United States, India's key export market, could pose problems. At the same time, Maran said that the government would act to ensure that the India did not face a flood of imports.
Eternal vigilance is absolutely essential to guard against the opening of the floodgates of imports.
As part of a move to protect the automobile industry under the new liberalised trade regime, the minister said India would ban the import of second hand cars older than three years. Maran said that India, the world's second most populous nation, would seek to seek to grab one percent of global trade by 2004-05, up from 0.64 per cent currently. India lifted quantitative restrictions on the import of more than 700 items last year as a first step toward complying with the WTO ruling. Analysts say the latest move lifting restrictions on the import of 715 items ranging from food, stationery, textiles, vehicles to electronic goods, will mean tougher competition but that domestic industry is unlikely to suffer much. In an event, trade analysts say WTO mechanisms provide enough scope for protection of industry against any import surge.