India's Trade with Different Countries/Alliances
India's total external trade (exports plus imports including re-exports) in the year 1990-91 stood at Rs.91,893 crore. Since then, this has witnessed continuous increase with occasional downturns. During 2008-09 the value of India's external trade reached Rs.20,72,438 crore.
India's exports during 2008-09 reached a level of Rs.7,66,935 crore registering a growth of 16.9 per cent. In US $ terms, exports reached a level of US$168.7 billion, registering a growth of 3.5 per cent as compared to a growth of 29.1 per cent during the previous year. The growth of exports during the year has exhibited a significant slow-down from September 2008 onwards. While, during the first half of the year 2008-09, April-September, exports increased by 31.3 per cent with almost all the major commodity groups, except increased by 31.3 per cent with almost all the major commodity groups, except marine products, handicrafts and carpets, recording significant growth. In the second half of the year 2008-09, October-March, exports recorded a decline of (-) 19.2 per cent with almost all the commodity groups recording significant negative growth.
During 2008-09 imports increased to Rs.13,05,503 from the level of Rs.10,12,312 crore in 2007-08 registering growth of 29.0 per cent in rupee terms. In US $ terms, imports reached a level of US $ 287.8 billion in 2008-09 registering a growth of 14.4 percent. Oil imports were valued at US $ 93.2 billion, which was higher by 16.9 percent over the previous year. Non-Oil imports increased to US $ 194.6 billion, which was higher by 13.2 per cent. Items which registered significant growth are Pearl, Precious & Semi-Precious Stones, Crude & Manufactured Fertilizer, Coal, Inorganic Chemicals, Project Goods, etc. Import of Gold and Transport Equipment registered significant decline.
The Trade deficit during 2008-09 increased to Rs.(-) 538568 crore as against Rs.(-) 356449 crore during 2007-08. In US $ terms, trade deficit increased to US & 119.1 billion from a level of US & 88.5 billion during 2007-08.
India has trading relations with all the major trading blocks and geographical regions of the world. During the period 2008-09 (April-February), the share of Asia and ASEAN region comprising South Asia, East Asia, Mid-Eastern and Gulf countries accounted for 51.4 per cent of India's total exports. The share of Europe and America in India's exports stood at 23.8 per cent and 16.5 per cent respectively of which EU countries (27) comprises 22.3 per cent. During the period, USA (12.0 per cent), has been the most important country of export destination following by United Arab Emirates (10.8 percent), China (5.1 per cent), Singapore (4.7 per cent), Netherlands (3.7 per cent), Hong Kong (3.7 per cent), U.K. (3.6 per cent), Germany (3.4 per cent), Saudi Arabia (3.0 percent), Belgium (2.6 per cent) and Italy (2.2 per cent).
Asia and ASEAN accounted for 61.7 per cent of India's total imports during the period followed by Europe (18.7 per cent) and America (10.1 per cent). Among individual countries the share of China stood highest at (10.7 per cent) followed by Saudi Arabia (7.1 percent), UAE (6.4 percent) and USA (6.0 percent), Iran (4.3 percent), Switzerland (4.2 per cent), Germany (3.6 per cent), Kuwait (3.4 percent), Nigeria (3.2 percent), and Iraq (2.8 percent).
(P) Provisional Figures
| Region | Exports (April-Feb) | Imports (April-Feb) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-08 | 2008-09(P) | 2007-08(P) | 2008-09(P) | |
| 1. Europe | 1,33,151 | 1,65,925 | 1,75,335 | 2,23,813 |
| 1.1 EU countries 27 | 1,23,219 | 1,55,266 | 1,27,315 | 1,61,593 |
| 1.2 Other WE countries | 9,553 | 10,123 | 47,881 | 62,115 |
| 1.3 East Europe | 379 | 536 | 138 | 106 |
| 2. Africa | 38,062 | 44,922 | 51,519 | 60,151 |
| 2.1 Southern Africa | 13,058 | 12,393 | 17,868 | 29,377 |
| 2.2 West Africa | 12,851 | 13,204 | 35,614 | 48,514 |
| 2.3 Central Africa | 934 | 1,372 | 189 | 632 |
| 2.4 East Africa | 15,126 | 18,687 | 1,158 | 1,158 |
| 3. America | 98,900 | 1,14,966 | 79,780 | 1,21,381 |
| 3.1 North America | 79,880 | 89,476 | 56,281 | 80,825 |
| 3.2 Latin America | 10,019 | 45,490 | 23,498 | 40,556 |
| 4. Asia and Asean | 2,96,287 | 3,57,982 | 5,43,551 | 7,39,622 |
| 4.1 East Asia | 5,070 | 6,719 | 30,783 | 40,230 |
| 4.2 ASEAN | 56,663 | 75,357 | 82,289 | 1,06,418 |
| 4.3 WANA | 1,08,920 | 1,44,039 | 2,58,645 | 3,56,716 |
| 4.4 NE Asia | 92,974 | 96,846 | 1,64,030 | 2,28,746 |
| 4.5 South Asia | 32,659 | 35,020 | 7,805 | 7,513 |
| 5. CIS & Baltics | 6,101 | 7,623 | 14,238 | 28,793 |
| 5.1 CARs Countries | 826 | 1,047 | 419 | 1,157 |
| 5.2 Other CIS Countries | 5,275 | 6,577 | 13,818 | 27,636 |
| 6. Unspecified Region | 1,482 | 4,346 | 2,666 | 4,710 |
| Total | 5,77,889 | 6,96,498 | 8,70,399 | 11,98,360 |
India-Europe Trade
Europeans countries account for about 21.5 per cent of India's total trade while India's exports to Europe during 2006-07 were US$ 28.87 billion. During this year, bilateral trade increased by 26 per cent over 2005-06. While India's export to Europe recorded a growth of 17 per cent, India's import from Europe grew by 33 per cent. The top five items of India's exports to Europe are ready-made garments including accessories, gems & jewellery, machinery & instruments, petroleum (crude & products) and transport equipment. The top five items of India's imports from Europe are machinery (except electrical & electronics), pearls/precious, semi-previous stones, electronic goods, transport equipments and iron & steel.
Trade and Investment relations with European Union
The European Union (EU) presently consists of 27 countries. These countries are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK, Bulgaria and Romania.
India and EU enjoy healthy economic relations. These relations have been built on the foundation of (i) India-EU Cooperation Agreement on Partnership and Development which came into effect in August, 1994 and (ii) India-EU Strategic Partnership which was announced in September, 2005. India also has bilateral economic Agreements with a number of individual EU countries in the areas of trade, investments and avoidance of double taxation. India has agreements for investments and promotions/protections with 22 countries of Europe, including 17 countries of EU. Similarly, agreements for avoidance of double taxation exist with 26 countries in EU.
India-EU bilateral relations are reviewed at the official level by the India-EC Joint Commission. This had its last meeting in July 2008. Three Sub-Commissions on Trade, Economic Cooperation and Development Cooperation and nine Joint Working Groups on agriculture and marine products, textiles, information technology & communications, consular matters, environment, steel, food processing industries, pharmaceuticals & bio-technology and technical barriers to trade (TBT)/sanitary and phyto sanitary (SPS) issues are functioning and their reports are considered by Joint Commission.
Source: National Portal Content Management Team, Reviewed on: 11-01-2011 
