Coimbatore : The Commerce and Industry Ministry is in the process of forming a National Trade Portal, including lowering the logistics cost, according to a top official.

The portal, with four-dimension aspects and to be implemented in phases, would link all stakeholders of domestic trade, all trade activities and export-import on a single platform Union Commerce and Industry Joint Secretary Keshava Chandra said.

Responding to various problems being faced by textile industry, as presented at a workshop ‘Indian textile sector – Competitive Analysis and Way Forward for FTAs’ organised by Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF) last night, Chandra said the portal would include online certificate system, since there were 88 government entities delaying the process of certification.

Another major step was to streamline financial system such as banking and insurance sectors, he said. The fourth one would be compliance system required in the export-import sector.

Union Ministry of Textiles Trade Adviser Aditi Rout said FTAs were not panacea to boost exports, adding that nearly 63 per cent of Indian exports were going to markets without FTA.

Earlier, the report presented suggested that the way forward was to seek better market access under current FTA negotiations conducted by the ministry with European Union Russia,Canada and others.

Another important aspect was to establish mutual recognition agreements with major export markets to combat the impact of non-tariff barriers, which were imposed on account of quality, human protection and labelling.