AndhraNews.Net - India's Exports doubled in less than a decade

New Delhi: January 14, 2004, 19:31 IST

India's exports have almost doubled in less than a decade, since 1995, when India became a member of the WTO. India's exports have gone up from US $ 26330.60 million ($ 26.3 billion) in 1994-95 to US $ 51702.22 million ($ 51.7 billion) in 2002-03. India's share in total world exports of goods and commercial services has increased from 0.61% in 1995 to 0.86% in 2001, while that in respect of total world imports of goods and commercial services for the same period increased from 0.78% to 0.99%.

Since the entry into force of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) with effect from 1st January, 1948 and until the establishment of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on 1st January 1995, eight Rounds of Multilateral Trade Negotiations (MTN) were held. After the coming into being of WTO, Five Ministerial Conferences have been held. Doha Work Programme was launched in the Fourth Ministerial Conference at Doha.

Regarding textiles, in accordance with the WTO's Agreement on Textiles & Clothing (ATC), all WTO Member countries were required to integrate specific volumes of their textiles and clothing trade into the WTO framework. In addition, the size of quotas was expanded annually by the restraining countries that maintained the quota. These measures have led to increase in market access, to a certain extent, although most of these quotas would be removed only at the last stage of integration under the ATC on 31 December 2004. With effect from 1.1.2005, the entire textiles and clothing trade would get integrated into the multilateral framework of the WTO, with the completion of the phase-out of the regime of textile quotas.

By being a WTO member, India also avails of the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) Treatment and National Treatment for its exports to other WTO members.

Meanwhile, the Department of Commerce in collaboration with the United Nations Conference on Trade & Development (UNCTAD) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) in January 2003 launched a project, entitled "Strategies and Preparedness for Trade and Globalisation in India". The aim of the projects is two-fold, viz., to assist in understanding the development dimension of key trade issues, particularly as they related to the current WTO agenda; and to strengthen the country's human and institutional capacity for analysis of globalisation-related issues and facilitate a policy environment that will support and sustain a more equitable process of globalisation.

The World Investment Report (WIR) of UNCTAD is an exercise for assessing the interaction between national and international FDI policies and the implications thereof on development. WIR 2003 has advocated a development-oriented FDI policy for developing countries in the context of International Investment Agreements (IIAs). In so far as FDI flows into India is concerned, the WIR has shown that the inflows have registered an increase over the last three years. The FDI inflows into India during the last three years as reported by WIR 2003 are : 2000 -- US $ 2.32 billion; 2001 -- US $ 3.40 billion; and 2002 - US $ 3.44 billion. The FDI policy of the government is liberal and transparent with a great degree of automaticity built-in. The policy is reviewed on an ongoing basis with a view to introducing further liberalisation and also carry out policy corrections required, if any.

Press Release by: PIB

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