India's trade is undergoing a paradigm shift in terms of regions and products.
Relatively new sectors such as engineering goods, electronics and petroleum products as well as new markets such as Latin America, Asia and Africa have increased their share in India's total exports in 2010-11 vis-à-vis 2004-05.
Traditional sectors such as plantation and agri products, gems and jewellery, textile and traditional destinations such as the US and European Union have seen their shares fall.
Even the sources of India's imports are changing with China and Korea (part of North East Asia) increasing their share, while the Association of South East Asian Nations, including Singapore, has managed to retain its share thanks to the Free Trade Agreement with India. But imports from the US and EU have fallen during the period under review.
Following the financial crisis severely hitting the US and the EU, the Centre had come out with a conscious policy to redirect India's exports to relatively unscathed and emerging markets by giving a host of incentives. The data have shown that these efforts have paid off.
Releasing the data on Wednesday, the Commerce Secretary, Dr Rahul Khullar, told reporters that, “You are seeing the first signs of a shift in focus (of trade in terms of regions and products). When the shares are changing, even a one per cent change is important. It is telling you who your new (trade) partners are and who you should be looking at. As you look at the latest trade figures, you will see a further strengthening of this trend.”
Interestingly, as evidence, Bajaj and Hero have found that Latin American countries such as Colombia want more of their bikes, while Mahindra has seen that their largest export market for their SUVs is Peru, he added.