Amid robust economic reforms, especially reforms in the trade policy environment during the last few years, India’s presence in world merchandise exports remains intact, industry body PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) has said. India’s share in world merchandise exports went slightly up from 1.60 per cent in 2015 to 1.68 per cent in 2018.
In terms of value, India’s merchandise exports increased by 22 per cent from $264 bn in 2015 to $323 bn in 2018 which is the second highest after Netherlands. Merchandise exports of Netherlands registered highest growth at 27 per cent, increasing from $571 bn in 2015 to $723 bn in 2018, PHDCCI said in a statement.
Exports from the United States increased only 11 per cent from $1502 bn in 2015 to $1664 bn in 2018 and China’s exports grew only 10 per cent from $2273 bn in 2015 to $2464 bn in 2018. However, owing to the impact of trade tensions between the US and China, the share of both countries in global merchandise exports declined. China’s share in world merchandise exports declined from 13.73 per cent in 2015 to 12.97 per cent in 2018, while the share of the US in world merchandise exports declined from 9.07 per cent in 2015 to 8.65 per cent in 2018, the chamber said.
During 2015-18, advanced economies like Germany, Japan and Netherlands were able to increase their respective shares in world exports. Germany’s share in world exports increased from 8.02 per cent to 8.10 per cent, Japan from 3.77 per cent to 3.84 per cent and Netherlands from 3.45 per cent to 3.76 per cent and Italy from 2.76 per cent to 2.84 per cent.
p style=”text-align:justify;”>On the other hand, countries such as South Korea, Hong Kong, France and the UK saw deceleration in their respective share in world exports during the same period. South Korea’s share in world exports declined from 3.18 per cent to 3.15 per cent, Hong Kong’s share from 3.08 per cent to 2.96 per cent, France’s share from 2.98 per cent to 2.96 per cent and the UK’s share from 2.82 per cent to 2.53 per cent.
“Trade wars are not in favour of the world economy; the volume of world exports is likely to shrink if further escalations in trade war between the US and China continue,” the PHDCCI statement said. On India, the chamber said that further improvement in logistics infrastructure and trade facilitation measures would enhance India’s exports growth trajectory and create millions of new employment opportunities. “To harness the export potential of the country, the overall ease of doing exports is needed to be further enhanced in terms of easier access to raw materials, building linkages for strong marketing of products, improving labour productivity, labour flexibility and capital efficiency,” it added.
