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India's Share In Global Trade
The weaker rupee will push the country's import bill due to higher payments for crude oil, coal, vegetable oil, gold, diamonds, electronics, machinery, plastics, and chemicals, economic think tank GTRI said on Friday. Citing an example, it said the depreciating domestic currency will increase India's gold import bill, especially as global gold prices have jumped 31.25 per cent, rising from USD 65,877 per kg in January 2024 to USD 86,464 per kg in January 2025. Since January 16, last year, the Indian Rupee (INR) has weakened by 4.71 per cent against the US dollar, falling from Rs 82.8 to Rs 86.7. In the last ten years, between January 2015 and 2025, the INR has weakened by 41.3 per cent against the US dollar, falling from Rs 61.4 to Rs 86.7, the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said in its report. In comparison, the Chinese Yuan depreciated by 3.24 per cent, from Yuan 7.10 to Yuan 7.33. "Overall, weaker INR will inflate import bills, raise energy and input prices, leading to
India has reduced its tariffs significantly over the years, bringing them down to the world average level, yet the domestic industries continue to suggest increasing the duties, a senior government official said on Wednesday. Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade Amardeep Singh Bhatia said that it needs to be examined why such requests come. "On the export market side and integration with the (global) supply chains, there is also a lot of work which has been done in terms of reduction in tariff, the weighted tariff has come down substantially and it is almost at the world average level. But of course, there are pressures that it should be increased by the domestic industry, which we need to look at why these requests keep coming up. Why are we not competitive enough," he said. India has also free trade agreements with different countries to push exports. The Secretary was speaking at CII's Global Policy Forum 2024. Cut in customs duties on raw ..
Steps such as adoption of international standards, using risk-based regulations, and modern infrastructure development will help further improve quality of goods manufactured and exported from India, economic think tank GTRI said on Friday. The Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) also recommended support to small and medium enterprises, avoiding quality control orders becoming non-tariff barriers, regulatory impact assessment, developing globally acceptable standards and inking mutual recognition pacts with trading partners to strengthen India's quality systems. These suggestions come at a time when India is on the fast track to issue Quality Control Orders (QCOs) and Compulsory Registration Orders (CROs) with a view to curb imports of sub-standard goods from countries like China, boost domestic manufacturing and push exports of high-quality goods from the country. GTRI Founder Ajay Srivastava said that to fully capitalize on these initiatives, it is crucial to comprehensively .
: The current China situation presents an opportunity to be an alternative or additional node in global supply chains, a former US trade official said Tuesday and asserted that India's economic prosperity will be driven by its global interdependence in increasing trade and investments into and from India, helping drive job creation, GDP growth and prosperity. The former official said as India becomes the third largest economy in nominal GDP and as the Indian middle class grows to become larger and with higher incomes, it will emerge as a significant market for US and global businesses. India's productive capacity will similarly find enhanced ways to serve global demand as we already see in technology, he said. India is a beneficiary of globalisation. Its economic prosperity will be driven by its global interdependence, in increasing trade and investments into and from India, helping drive job creation, GDP growth and prosperity. Today the global supply chain situation works in ...
The UN trade body sounded an alarm on Thursday that global trade is being disrupted by attacks in the Red Sea, the war in Ukraine, and low water levels in the Panama Canal. Jan Hoffmann, a trade expert at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development known as UNCTAD, warned that shipping costs have already surged and energy and food costs are being affected, raising inflation risks. Since attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea began in November, he said, major players in the shipping industry have temporarily halted using Egypt's Suez Canal, a critical waterway connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea and a vital route for energy and cargo between Asia and Europe. The Suez Canal handled 12 per cent to 15 per cent of global trade in 2023, but UNCTAD estimates that the trade volume going through the waterway dropped by 42 per cent over the last two months, Hoffmann said. Since November, the Iranian-backed Houthis have launched at least 34 attacks on
As the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting drew to a close, global leaders on Friday said the economy and trade appeared to be moving towards normalisation but were yet expected to be far from normal. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the global trade was weak in 2023 before seeing an uptick in the last quarter. "We have been more optimistic about 2024, and I feel, we are moving towards normalisation, but I still don't see it returning to a normal fully," she said at a panel discussion on 'The global economic outlook' on the last day of the WEF Annual Meeting 2024 here. "There are so many uncertainties, and there also so many elections around the world, making it difficult to predict anything," she added. The WTO chief said she would still expect trade growth to be better than in 2024 unless a major war breaks out. She said there are some bright shoots on the trade front, and the trade has been the force for resilience. The WTO chief also said it is politically diffic