Finally to follow a bottom-up approach to boost exports and rationalize non-essential imports at a time when foreign shipments have been contracting for five months in a row, the government has decided to constitute a trade facilitation council involving the state governments and will urge them to frame their own trade policies.

The matter is likely to be discussed at a meeting between commerce secretary Rita Teaotia and state industry secretaries on Wednesday.

The trade facilitation council will be headed by commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman and will have representation from state industry ministers and secretaries.

Since real exports happen at the state level, states will be encouraged to have their own specific trade policies, said a commerce ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“The state trade policies will be left entirely to the state governments. Of course, there are certain things that we would like to see in the policy which we will convey. While formulating a special economic zone (SEZ) policy, too, we asked all state governments to have their own SEZ policy. But only five states did it,” the official said.

The commerce secretary will also share state-specific export figures with officials on Wednesday to allow them to measure their own trade performance. “States can now access their import and export data regularly through the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics website,” the official said.

The commerce ministry would like to understand the concerns of states in promoting exports. “We will discuss local taxation issues. We will ask states whether there are infrastructure bottlenecks, governance issues and regulatory environment-related issues and what they can do to make them easier and better,” the official said.

The ministry will encourage export of spices, particularly from 11 key states, including Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir. “We will provide support for production and exports to these states as there is huge opportunity available,” the official added.