EU accounts for 1/5th of India’s top engineering export destinations: EEPC India

New Delhi, July 1 (KNN) With the European Union, including UK claiming one-fifth of India’s engineering exports to top 25 destinations, any upheaval in the country’s largest trading partner following Brexit would have an impact of great magnitude on the exporters who are already in a state of distress, an Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) of India analysis has shown.

As per the latest data, India’s total engineering exports to top 25 destinations which account for 75 per cent of the country’s total engineering product shipments aggregated to USD 7.6billion for the April-May period of the current fiscal. Of this, the EU members contributed USD 1.5 billion with the UK emerging as the number one destination among the EU members, followed by Germany, the EEPC India paper noted.

“Seven of our 25 destinations are from EU. So, any upheaval in the entire market as a result of the political division with wide economic ramifications on the trade, investment and currency movement should be a cause of worry for us, “Chairman of the EEPC India, T S Bhasin said.

He said, though a two-year window of negotiations for the exit of Britain is available, the current indications point towards extreme political stand by a divided British polity and the EU leadership.

India’s engineering exports to UK for the period under review were USD 372 million and for Germany, the shipments amounted to USD 339 million. The other major trading partners are Italy with engineering shipments of USD   253 million, France USD 191 million, the Netherlands USD 141 million, Spain and Belgium USD 121 million each.

The EEPC India paper said China may take pro-active steps and peg its currency to its advantage and benefit from the emerging situation in the European market.

“India too should keep a close watch on the unfolding situation and tweak its strategy on protracted India-EU Free Trade Agreement negotiations while opening fresh avenues of trade liberalization with Britain,” he said.

Bhasin urged the government to work out the strategy in active partnership with different export segments so that an effective solution to deal with the emerging situation is devised. (KNN Bureau)