ABSTRACT
The study examines the export competitiveness of Indian manufacturing at the disaggregated level since the onset of trade reforms in the early 1990s. Although the level of trade protection has declined considerably and there was significant growth of merchandise trade, the traditional labour-intensive items still have a sizable share in the export basket. In the recent period, there has been a noticeable shift towards technology-intensive products like machinery and chemical sectors. The use-based revealed an increase in the import of intermediate and capital goods, while the exports are concentrated in the intermediate and consumer goods segments. There has been a gradual shift of trade preference from OECD to Asian countries, especially China in the recent period. The analysis of export competitiveness using Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage (RSCA) index at 6-digit level HS product groups from 1990 to 2018 revealed an improvement in competitiveness, especially the intermediate and consumer goods sectors, but confined to only a limited set of commodities. The analysis indicates that the role of trade liberalisation in improving export competitiveness is not an automatic process and requires deliberate policy interventions and capability building.
