Indian policymakers appear to have finally realized the importance of supporting exports to boost the country’s GDP and revive the flagging economy. After Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s comments last week about improving finance access for MSMEs and exporters, this week Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal reiterated the same. At a meeting of the Board of Trade, he said that the government would soon finalize norms to increase forex credit to MSME exporters at lower interest rates. Goyal’s comments came against the background of India being increasingly vocal about safeguarding the interests of its exporters, particularly when negotiating the terms of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The 15 countries of the RCEP bloc are meeting Indian representatives in New Delhi this weekend, and Indian officials have stressed that they will do all they can to protect and promote the interests of the country’s industry. Indo-US relations also appear to be moving towards better times, with talks being initiated to restore GSP benefits for Indian goods and mutual withdrawal of tariffs. Given industry opinion that exports could have a huge role to play in offsetting India’s economic slowdown, such measures make a lot of sense. Further evidence of the government’s support also came this week in MSME minister Nitin Gadkari’s statement that lawmakers are working on an Alibaba-like e-marketplace for MSMEs. Indian policymakers are clearly pulling out all the stops in a bid to support the country’s trade establishment. Now the next important step will be to ensure this momentum keeps going.