He also urged stakeholders to study import trends through the commerce department’s trade portal and identify opportunities for domestic manufacturing and import substitution.
“You should keep an eye on what goods are being imported, you will see opportunities in that too, what things can be manufactured in India…(on the portal), we will show import substitution, whatever is coming from abroad where our requirement is huge and it would also show what all you can do,” said Goyal at the website launch of Bharatiya Vyapar Mahotsav.
The minister informed traders that India still heavily relies on other nations in sectors such as capital goods, and called upon industrial clusters including Rajkot, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Batala, and Pune to enhance local production. “Some countries create hindrances in buying from others,” Goyal said. He also suggested driving exports and buying goods produced locally, rather than importing them, while highlighting the need to boost value addition in agricultural exports, which has now crossed ₹5 lakh crore.
Goyal’s statement follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging citizens to take certain measures to preserve precious foreign exchange and contain the country’s rising import bill amid the ongoing conflict in West Asia.
India’s current account deficit is expected to widen sharply to 2.3% of GDP in FY27 from 0.9% in FY26 amid elevated oil prices and external sector pressures, HSBC said Monday. The report also projected the balance of payments deficit to widen to $65 billion in FY27 from $35 billion last fiscal year. On Monday, the rupee opened at an all-time low of 96.20 against the US dollar, slipping 0.2% from its previous close, as the West Asia war continues to cloud sentiments and unsettle markets. Goyal said despite the global economic uncertainties, triggered by the Ukraine war and the West Asia crisis, India’s exports rose around 5% to $863.11 billion in FY26 and “this is not a small achievement”. “This year’s target is $1 trillion,” said Goyal. “This is a big target. We have to work together for this,” he said.
The minister underlined that quality standards of India-made products will naturally improve when manufacturers shift towards an export-oriented approach. “Only subsidy can’t be used for trade,” he said. “Subsidies and production linked incentives are kickstarters and depending on it fully will not work.”