India’s foreign trade improves significantly with more regions post-pandemic: Report

New Delhi, Aug 28 (IANS) As India aims to achieve $2 trillion exports by 2030, the country's trade with regions and regional groupings improved significantly in the post-pandemic times amid robust measures and policy reforms towards ease of doing business, a new report said on Wednesday.

The industry body PHDCCI considered three years of pre-pandemic (FY 2018-2020) and three years of post-pandemic (FY 2022-24) to compare India’s trade performance with major regions and regional groupings in the World.

The findings showed that the country’s trade is favourable with eight regions and regional groupings in the post-pandemic years as compared with six regions and regional groupings in the pre-pandemic years.

Sanjeev Agrawal, President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that the proactive and effective measures and policy reforms undertaken by the government including the improvement in logistics, massive investments in exports infrastructure, simplification of indirect tax regime, single window clearances, lesser human interface, have greatly enhanced the ease of doing exports, paving the way for a breakthrough in India’s foreign trade trajectory.

A total of 19 regions and regional groupings were analysed. The trade surplus was observed in eight regions and regional groupings, including North America, South Asia, European Countries (EU), Other European Countries, East Africa, North Africa, Central Asian Region and Central Africa in the post-pandemic period.

The pre-pandemic years saw trade with North America, South Asia, Other European Countries, East Africa, North Africa and Central Africa.

“Notably, regions such as European Countries and Central Asian countries have transitioned from a trade deficit in pre-pandemic years to a trade surplus in the post-pandemic years, highlighting India’s potential to become a strong exporter among the major exporters in the World,” Agrawal stressed.

The country’s exports performance has been significantly resilient in the post pandemic years as the country’s exports were all-time high year after year -- $776 billion in 2022-23 and $778 billion in 2023–24.

The overall trade deficit has also been improved significantly to $78.1 billion in 2023-24 as compared with $95.8 billion in 2018-19, the report said.

The trade deficit narrowed with West Africa, Other South African Countries, South Africa custom Union (SACU) and Latin America in the post pandemic years.

The report suggested to focus more on reducing the cost of doing business including costs of capital, power, logistics, land/availability of land, labour/availability of skilled labour and compliances, to enhance the competitiveness of manufacturing in the global markets.

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