What is Export Competitiveness

This chapter analyzes the export competitiveness of India against BIMSTEC countries. To identify the comparative advantage/disadvantage of India's exports with BIMSTEC countries, revealed comparative advantage (RCA) approach is used at HS 6-digit. It provides an understanding of challenges and opportunities that India's export sector faces as it becomes rapidly integrated into global markets. The study identifies those export categories in which India loses, gains, or maintains its comparative advantage with following the stages of comparative advantages. The study concludes that India's export sectors witnessed competitive positioning of some of its product, and these trends have not been uniform across all Industries. Rapid export growth of some sector does not imply that the sector is displaying high demand growth in BIMSTEC markets. In an ideal situation, there would be the emergence of an export structure that has a heavy concentration in those industries that exhibit high growth in the BIMSTEC market.