Various organizations that have been set up in the country by the government for promoting country’s foreign trade are as follows:
(i) Department of Commerce: Department of Commerce in the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India is the apex body responsible for formulating policies in the sphere of foreign trade, increasing commercial relations with other countries, state trading, export promotional measures and the development, and regulation of certain exportoriented industries and commodities.
(ii) Export Promotion Councils (EPCs): Export Promotion Councils are non-profit organizations registered under the Companies Act or the Societies Registration Act, as the case may be. Their basic objective is to promote and develop the country’s exports of particular products falling under their jurisdiction.
(iii) Commodity Boards Commodity: Boards are the boards which have been specially established by the Government of India for the development of production of traditional commodities and their exports and supplement the EPCs. At present there are seven commodity boards in India: Coffee Board, Rubber Board, Tobacco Board, Spice Board, Central Silk Board, Tea Board, and Coir Board.
(iv) Export Inspection Council (EIC): Export Inspection Council of India was setup by the Government of India under Section 3 of the Export Quality Control and Inspection Act 1963. The council aims at sound development of export trade through quality control and pre-shipment inspection.
(v) Indian Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO):Indian Trade Promotion Organisation was setup on 1 st January 1992. ITPO is a service organization which serves the industry by organizing trade fairs and exhibitions within the country and abroad and helps export firms in participating in international trade fairs and in developing exports of new items.
(vi) Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT): Indian Institute of Foreign Trade is an institution that was setup in 1963 by the Government of India as an autonomous body. It has recently been recognized as Deemed University. It provides training in international trade, conduct researches in areas of international business, and analyzing and disseminating data relating to international trade and investments.
(vii) Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP): The Indian Institute of Packaging was set up as a national institute jointly by the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, and the Indian Packaging Industry and allied interests in 1966. It is a training-cum-research institute pertaining to packaging and testing and caters to both domestic and export markets. It also undertakes technical consultancy, testing services on packaging developments, training and educational programmes, promotional award contests, information services and other allied activities.
(viii) State Trading Organizations: The State Trading Organisation (STC) was set-up in May 1956 with the main objective of to stimulate trade, primarily export trade among different trading partners of the ’.world. Later the government set up many organization such as Metals and Minerals Trading corporation (MMTC) and Handicrafts Export Corporation (HHEC).
