NEW DELHI: The country’s exports in 2016-17, would be reversing back to near about the level of 2010-11, making it imperative for the government to come out with a fresh strategy to stem continuous fall in exports, informed Assocham in a statement.With a 16-18 per cent contraction, exports will aggregate around USD 260 billion, a level quite close to USD 251 billion attained in 2010-11. “This is the lowest since the exports broke the USD 300 billion-mark for the first time in 2011-12 with USD 306 billion”, the Assocham said.Dropping for the 15th month in a row, cumulative value of exports for the period April-February 2015-16 was USD 238.42 billion as against USD 286.30 billion registering a negative growth of 16.73 per cent.“How severe is the situation can be gauged from a possibility that it would take another few years, maybe not before 2017-18, before we retrieve the export levels achieved 2011-12. That would be a seven-year reversal,” Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said, impressing on the government that while the external sector would remain challenging, new game plan including review of the Free Trade Agreements FTAs ) and Preferential trade Agreements (PTAs) should be devised.India has signed many trade pacts, more for geo-political reasons rather than commercial reasons. One case is the South Asian Free Trade Agreement, which has not resulted in any significant export gains. India’s trade deficit has widened with the ASEAN India’s trade pacts have exacerbated inverted duty structure – high import duties on raw materials and intermediates, and lower duties on finished goods – that discourage the production and export of value-added items.