AN OPPORTUNITY FOR ENHANCING TRADE
There is a great opportunity for enhancing trade with the Latin American region because of the following factors:
i) Liberalized, growing & large economies.
India’s exports to Latin America constitute a mere 0.5% of the total imports of the region.
ii) Commencement of direct shipping services, which were not available earlier.
iii) Language problem can be overcome with the help of available software for quick translation of business correspondence in English to Portuguese and Spanish and vice versa.
The imports by the Latin American countries have been showing continuously an increasing trend as may be seen from the following data:
(Values in US$ million)
|
YEAR |
EXPORT VALUES |
EXPORT GROWTH (%) |
IMPORT VALUES |
IMPORT GROWTH(%) |
TOTAL TRADE |
|
1996 |
254100 |
-- |
272200 |
-- |
526300 |
|
1997 |
279800 |
10.11 |
323700 |
18.92 |
603500 |
|
1998 |
275500 |
-1.54 |
340300 |
5.13 |
615800 |
|
1999 |
297000 |
7.80 |
334700 |
-1.64 |
631700 |
|
2000 |
359000 |
20.8 |
388000 |
15.92 |
747000 |
|
2001 |
343000 |
(-) 4.45 |
352000 |
(-)9.34 |
695000 |
|
2002 |
343000 |
0.00 |
330000 |
(-)6.25 |
673000 |
|
2003 |
378000 |
10.2 |
366000 |
10.90 |
744000 |
|
2004 |
485600 |
28.46 |
482600 |
24.16 |
968200 |
|
2005 |
565000 |
16.37 |
526000 |
8.99 |
1091000 |
The total import of the Latin American region rose from US$ 272 billion in 1996 to US$ 526 billion in 2005 recording an increase of 93 % in a decade. The exports from the Latin American region have also grown from US$ 254 billion in 1996 to US$ 565 billion in 2005 recording an increase of 122 %.