India may soon get a full-fledged opportunity to boost its exports and narrow its trade deficit. 

 

Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry in Rajya Sabha, said that the competitive advantage for manufacturing and production of certain products can give an edge to explore the opportunities generated by the ongoing trade standoff between the US and China.

 

He further added, products related to mineral, machinery, mechanical appliances and their parts, electrical machinery and equipment, chemicals, synthetic fibres, and textiles have a window of opportunity.

 

India has been attracting better investments in manufacturing over the past four years, foreign direct investments (FDI) from China in metallurgical industries, service sector, renewable energy, electronics, and machine tools have significantly shot up in the previous financial year. 

 

FDI from China in Indian metallurgical industries rose around five times year-on-year to USD 16.75 million in FY19 and in the renewable energy and services sector, the same rose three times year-on-year to around USD 25.5 million each.

 

Similarly, FDI from the US in Indian software and hardware industry rose more than three times year-on-year to USD 1.5 billion in FY19. 

Metallurgical industries, education and power sectors also saw a spike in FDI from the US. 

 

Piyush Goyal stated in the parliament, “The government has sensitised all the trade promotion bodies to work towards increasing exports by capitalising on this opportunity arising from the ongoing tariff standoff between the US and China."