The new Financial Year started with a positive note for the Indian engineering community. As per the latest data, in the first month of the Financial Year 2025-26, India’s engineering exports registered a double-digit growth of 11.28 percent, reaching USD 9.5 billion. This comes after Indian engineering exports achieved a 6.74 percent growth in exports in the last Fiscal, 2024- 25, but experienced a decline of around 3.92 percent in March- 2025 exports . The export growth was noted in almost all panels and destinations which is a very positive sign. The export growth exceeded the merchandise exports which grew by 9.02 percent in April 2025.
The
export performance comes at a time when India and the whole world is going
through geo-political transformations that are also reshaping the global trade
dynamics. As per the latest WTO Global Trade Update, while the WTO economists
were confident of a gradual trade recovery in the beginning of 2025, a slew of
protective tariff measures majorly adopted by the US has prompted them to
re-look at the trade landscape – this has also resulted in a downward revision
of the global merchandise trade. While earlier Baseline projections suggested a
growth of 2.7 percent in 2025 and 2.9 percent in 2026, the revised suggestions
indicate a 0.2 percent contraction in merchandise trade in 2025 followed by a
2.5 percent increase in 2026. The possible “reinstatement of reciprocal
tariffs” by the US has emerged as the most significant threat that can impact
global trade – if enacted fully this can bring down global merchandise trade by
0.6 percent in 2025. This accompanies with the growing trade policy uncertainty
across the world could result in almost 1.5 percent decline in global trade in
2025. Given these uncertainties and risks the performance of the Indian
engineering exporters are indeed laudable.
I
would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate our Government for
concluding the crucial India-UK Free Trade Agreement on May 6th 2025. These
FTAs create opportunities for Indian exporters in major trade destinations
despite the growing challenges of non-tariff barriers. I am aware of the fact
that India is also speedily negotiating the India-EU FTA. I am very hopeful
that conclusion of this FTA along with the UK trade deal will strengthen our
position in the Europe even when the countries there are becoming more
protectionist. India is also negotiating a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with
the US. While previously significant gain was anticipated from this deal given
the high reciprocal tariffs imposed by US on China. However, both the US and
China have mutually agreed to reduce excessively high tariffs for 90 days that
have been imposed earlier on imports of each other. On the other hand this may
create some opportunities for our exporters in China as they ramp up their
finished goods production for the US market.
Within
our neighbourhood too, the trade dynamics has been transforming following the
new geo-political alliances. The recent port restrictions imposed by Bangladesh
on selected Indian exports and the retaliatory measures adopted by India
restricting Bangladeshi imports across land ports is an indicator of such
changes. The industry is watching cautiously to understand the full impact of
these frequent fluctuations in global trade dynamics. We at EEPC are also
trying to provide our inputs and suggestions to the Government to the best of
our abilities to veer through this global trade scenario.
At
this moment when global trade relations are getting re-defined, it is important
for us to showcase our capability to the global markets to strengthen our
position in the global trade. With this objective, EEPC India is continuing to
participate in a number of global exhibitions to give our exporting community a
chance to display their products in some of the major global markets. EEPC
India has been in constant touch with the Government of India for support in
these endeavours. Some of the major exhibitions that EEPC will be participating
in the coming months include CWIEME, Berlin, world’s largest exhibition for
coil winding, transformer, generator and electric motor manufacturing, and
e-mobility, SUBCON 2025 in UK, JIMEX in Jordan and EUROBIKE in Frankfurt. I
urge our exporters to come and participate in such events through EEPC and
showcase their expertise to the global buyers.