Freight forwarders included in NCTF with FFFAI as a member

Recently, the Government of India has constituted National Committee on Trade Facilitation (NCTF) under the Chairmanship of the Cabinet Secretary with an objective to develop the pan-India road map for trade facilitation. It is a follow up of India’s ratification of the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation (TFA) in April 2016.
The composition of the NCTF is inclusive at the national committee level which will comprise of Secretaries of all key departments involved in trade issues like revenue, commerce, agriculture, home, shipping, health etc. It will also have Chairman CBEC, Chairman Railway Board, and Director General Foreign Trade as Members. Major trade associations as members of NCTF include Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce (FICCI), Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), Associated Chambers of Commerce in India (ASSOCHAM), Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations in India (FFFAI), etc and Joint Secretary, Customs, CBEC will be its Member Secretary.
Commenting on the formation of NCTF Samir Shah, Chairman, FFFAI said, “It’s a very pragmatic step towards achieving the goal of WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement. We are very happy that the government has taken FFFAI as its member to add the freight forwarding industry perspective. Our Federation would provide NCTF with all necessary inputs based on the feedback from the freight forwarding community in India to benefit the foreign trade and the country’s economy at large.”