Commerce Ministry functioning to eradicate trade barriers to boost exports in sub-Saharan Africa & Gulf nations

To boost India’s exports to sub-Saharan African countries like Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and other Gulf nations, the Commerce Ministry is addressing the concerns related to non-tariff barriers and market access. The ministry has requested exporters to put thrust on potential key sectors like electronics, and engineering to bolster exports.

The major trading partners of India in that region in 2022-23 were South Africa (total trade USD 18.9 billion, exports USD 8.5 billion); Nigeria (USD 11.85 billion, exports USD 5.15 billion); Togo (USD 6.6 billion, exports USD 6 billion), and Tanzania (USD 6.5 billion, exports USD 3.93 billion). The other countries were Mozambique (USD 5 billion, exports USD 2.5 billion); Angola (USD 4.22 billion, exports USD 621 million); and Kenya (USD 3.4 billion, exports USD 3.2 billion).

A virtual meeting was held with the Indian Mission of the top 10 countries (bilateral trade-wise) in the sub-Saharan African region to talk about the overall economic and commercial relations with those countries, the export performances and non-tariff barriers which are acting as obstacles to bilateral trade. Similarly, another meeting was held with Indian Missions in GCC countries, which are the largest trading bloc of India. The bilateral trade with GCC countries was around USD 52.76 billion with Saudi Arabia, USD 84.8 billion with the UAE, USD 13.8 billion with Kuwait, with Oman USD 12.4 and with Qatar it was around USD 18.77 billion.

As per the finance ministry imports have also increased by 12.3% from the previous year. The trade deficit during the seven months was USD 147.07 billion against USD 167.14 billion in the corresponding period last year.
The Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) ], a Think Tank in its report has said that India has potential but it needs to fast-track the removal of non-tariff barriers that are faced by the domestic exporters in different countries to accomplish the target of one trillion dollar outbound shipment by 2030.