Theme: Trade | Can India capitalise on the “China Plus One” strategy?

India’s exports have fallen over the past six months, particularly in sectors like petroleum, gems and jewelry, engineering products, and chemicals. What are the reasons for this decline? In this episode of the State of the Economy podcast, businessline’s Amiti Sen speaks to Arun Kumar Garodia, Chairman, Engineering Export Promotion Council of India (EEPC), to understand the challenging landscape of India’s export sector. Garodia suggests that this decline is due to the slump to a range of global challenges, such as the war in Ukraine, a slowdown in China’s economy, and the cost-of-living crisis. He highlights how these factors have disrupted international trade patterns, leading to weakened global demand and exposing vulnerabilities in the global trading system. He stresses the need to diversify markets to mitigate risks and reduce reliance on traditional trade partners. He added that negotiations for free trade agreements (FTAs) with various regions, including Africa and Latin America, as steps towards this diversification. Additionally, he discusses India’s negotiations for FTAs with significant markets like the European Union, the UK, and Canada, which could boost demand and exports. The discussion also explores the opportunity presented by China’s economic challenges, with a “China Plus One” strategy emerging as a global trend. Goradia explains that India should capitalise on this strategy by building its capacity, expanding supply chains, and becoming a reliable alternative to China in global trade. Garodia also explains how the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism could impact trade with the region. Listen to the podcast to know more about the factors impacting India’s exports and the strategies that India can use to navigate these challenges. (Host: Amiti Sen, Producers: J Jayapriyanka, Anjana) About the State of the Economy podcast India’s economy has been hailed as a bright spot amid the general gloom that seems to have enveloped the rest of the world. But several sectors continue to stutter even as others seem set to fire on all cylinders. To help you make sense of the bundle of contradictions that the country is, businessline brings you podcasts with experts ranging from finance and marketing to technology and start-ups.