New Delhi, Apr 3 (PTI) The pledge of the world's 20 major economies to refrain from raising new barriers to trade and investment will put India's exports back on track by June, apex body of Indian exporters FIEO said today.
"... If further protectionist measures are not taken by our trading partners, Indian exports will be back on track by the end of the first quarter of the current financial year," FIEO President A Sakthivel said.
After growing at an impressive rate of over 30 per cent in the first half of 2008-09, exports started declining and in October 2008 dipped, for the first time five years, by 12.1 per cent on account of demand slowdown in major markets. They declined by over 21 per cent in February 2009.
India had scaled down its USD 200 billion export target for the last fiscal to USD 175 billion in the wake of global the financial crisis. India's exports in 2007-08 were valued at USD 162 billion.
The US and EU account for about 35 per cent of Indian exports. The country's exporters are facing non-tariff trade barriers such as safety and labelling norms in the US and EU.
The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said the G-20 resolve would benefit global trade.
The WTO had said that global trade is likely to shrink by 9 per cent in 2009.
Source : Press Trust Of India