Dear Members,

According to WTO, the volume of world merchandise trade grew 4.9% year-on-year in the first half of 2025. The value of world merchandise trade was up 6% year-on-year in the first six months of 2025. Trade growth drivers in the first half included the front-loading of imports in North America leading to higher inventory levels and favourable macroeconomic conditions such as disinflation, supportive fiscal policies, and strong growth in emerging markets. AI-related goods — including semiconductors, servers, and telecommunications equipment — drove nearly half of the overall trade expansion in the first half of the year, rising 20% year-on-year in value terms.

In its latest “Global Trade Outlook and Statistics” report published on 7.10.2025, the WTO predicted that trade volume growth in 2025 would stand at 2.4%, up sharply from a previous estimate of 0.9% in the trade body’s August report. The outlook for next year is less rosy, however — the organization slashed its previous expectation of 1.8% trade volume growth in 2026 to a lacklustre 0.5%, indicating that the tariff impact has shifted into 2026. World commercial services export growth is now expected to slow from 6.8% in 2024 to 4.6% in 2025 and 4.4% in 2026. These estimates are slightly stronger than the April forecast.

During H1, FY 2025–26, Indian merchandise exports grew marginally by 3% to US$ 220.12 billion, while services exports are expected to grow by 6.1% to US$ 193.18 billion, thus overall exports increasing by 4.45% to US$ 413.3 billion. As regards SEZs, merchandise exports grew by 9% to US$ 69 billion during FY 2024–25.

On constant follow-up by the EPCES, Department of Commerce has extended the due date for filing of APR by SEZ units to 31.12.2025, RoDTEP extended to 31.3.2026, discontinued filing of manual returns by EOUs following online filing under automation of IGCR on ICEGATE, and issued clarification that there is no need to file SOFTEX return for supply of software services from one SEZ unit to another SEZ unit. The long-pending reform to allow SEZ-to-DTA supplies on a duty-foregone basis is still under discussion with the Department of Revenue due to concerns about potential effects on DTA units — we will await Cabinet approval on this matter.

EPCES organised a small informal function to bid farewell to Shri Sunil Barthwal, former Commerce Secretary who superannuated on 30.9.2025, and to welcome Shri Rajesh Agrawal, the new Commerce Secretary. EPCES met the new Commerce Secretary and apprised him of the problems faced by SEZs and EOUs.

Further, with the Government’s approval of the new Articles of Association, elections for the Central Governing Council (CGC), Regional Governing Councils (RGCs), Vice Chairperson, and Regional Vice Chairpersons were held during July–August 2025. EPCES welcomes Shri Sunil Rallan, CMD, J Matadee Free Trade Zone Pvt Ltd., as the new Vice Chairperson of the Council, and also welcomes the newly elected members of the Central and Regional Governing Councils and the Regional Vice Chairpersons.

This edition also brings you updates on key issues pursued by EPCES with the Government, expert responses to member queries from our knowledge partner, and highlights of activities at headquarters and regional levels. We look forward to your valuable feedback and suggestions to make this news magazine more informative and engaging.