Rajesh Agrawal Takes Charge as Commerce Secretary

Senior IAS officer Rajesh Agrawal on Wednesday assumed charge as Secretary, Department of Commerce, an official statement said.

He has succeeded Sunil Barthwal, who retired on September 30.

Agrawal is an accomplished administrator with three decades of experience in governance, policy-making and implementation across diverse sectors, including skilling, power, fertiliser, agriculture, and MSMEs.

Prior to his current assignment, he was overseeing India's trade negotiations with various countries under free trade agreements.

He was the chief negotiator for the India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement, Indo-Pacific Economic Forum, India-Australia CECA, and review of the ASEAN FTA.

He was also in charge of export promotion for the agriculture and allied sectors.

Agrawal is taking charge at a time when the Trump tariffs have disrupted the global trade.

The US has imposed a steep 50% tariffs on Indian goods entering US markets.

The two countries are also negotiating a bilateral trade agreement since March. So far, five rounds of negotiations have been held.

Agrawal was chief negotiator for the agreement. Joint secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Darpan Jain, is the deputy chief negotiator for the pact.

The US tariffs are impacting India's exports of labour-intensive sectors like shrimp, gems and jewellery and textiles.

India's exports rose 6.7% to USD 35.1 billion in August annually, while imports declined 10.12% to USD 61.59 billion.

The RBI on Wednesday announced a host of measures to help exporters tide over challenges posed by the imposition of 50 per cent tariffs by the US administration on Indian shipments.