The Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry is engaged in the promotion of international trade. This Department has, over a period of time, evolved and adopted a number of measures to achieve its goal of export promotion. The constitution of the Standing Committee on Promotion of Exports by Air and the Standing Committee on Promotion of Exports by Sea, better known as SCOPE-Air and SCOPE-Shipping respectively, was one such measure. These Committees act as meaningful fora for sorting out issues relating to international trade infrastructure, policy and procedure. The aim of the fora is to have the considered opinion of trade bodies so as to facilitate the decision making process in Government. Both SCOPE-Air and SCOPE-Shipping are chaired by the Additional Secretary (Infrastructure) in the Department of Commerce and the meetings of these Committees are generally held every six months at different locations, mostly in port towns and/or State capitals. In the recent past, the meetings have been held in Kochi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Goa, Kolkata etc.

The two Committees have been very successful in recommending measures relating to the simplification of Customs procedures, removing bottlenecks in the export infrastructure at ports and air cargo complexes, inland rail movement of exim containers etc. These measures have helped reduce the transaction cost and transaction time of exports. The implementing authorities, including the Ministries of Civil Aviation and Railways, the Department of Shipping , Major Ports Trusts, the Central Board of Excise and Customs and the Airports Authority of India have been very active in following the recommendations of these two Committees.