India’s exports to US, Europe rise: minister

India's exports to the US and Europe continued to increase even as its exports to emerging economies declined, showing its continuing dependence on the western markets for exports.

India's exports to Europe recorded an increase of 5.99 per cent in the first seven months of the current financial year (April-October 2013-14) at $33.15 billion against $31.28 billion in April-October 2012-13.

Exports to the USA increased by 8.64 per cent to $23.35 billion during April-October 2013-14 from $21.49 billion during the year-ago period, minister of state for commerce and industry E M Sudarsana Natchiappan said quoting DGFT figures.

"In the first seven months of current fiscal year, 2013-14 exports to Europe and the US have increased in comparison to the corresponding period last year," he told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

"Exports to the USA have not declined in the previous three years. However, exports to Europe had shown slight decline."

This is attributable to global economic crisis, sovereign debt crisis in Europe and the economic slowdown in the developed economies, which adversely affected demand for our exports, he said.

''But exports to European countries in 2013-14 have shown improvement. In the first 7 months of current fiscal year, 2013-14 exports to Europe and the US have increased in comparison to the corresponding period last year,'' he said.

Natchiappan said it has been the government's endeavour to encourage both product diversification and market diversification of its export, so that downturn in one geography does not effects the complete export scenario.

"Government has identified certain markets under the focus market scheme (FMS) in the foreign trade policy. Such identified markets include countries from Africa, Latin America, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEANs)," Natchiappan added.