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Expressing optimism over India’s exports growth, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the country’s goods and services exports are expected to cross $750 billion this fiscal despite the global economic uncertainties. In 2021-22, the country's goods and services exports touched an all-time high of $422 billion and $254 billion respectively, taking the total shipments to $676 billion. Due to the global demand slowdown, India's exports contracted for the second consecutive month in January, dipping by 6.6 per cent to $32.91 billion.  During April-January this fiscal, goods shipments rose by 8.5 per cent to $369.25 billion, while services exports were estimated at $272 billion in the period.

The minister said that sectors which would help in promoting exports include manufactured goods, agri products, labour intensive items, and high quality products. He expressed confidence that by 2030, India's goods and services exports would touch $2 trillion. Regarding widening trade deficit with China, he said the government is taking steps to boost domestic manufacturing of quality goods which would help in containing imports.  He added that until 2000-01, Indo-China total trade was about $1 billion and even till 2004, the trade was ‘probably’ in the range of $4 billion and the trade deficit was about $1 billion.

Goyal said ‘After 2004, almost an outreach was done to engage more with China, to attract Chinese goods into the country in a big way.  I do not want to politicise this subject…But between 2004 and 2014, we saw trade grow very very rapidly and the trade deficit went up by nearly 35 times’. He said that the previous governments should be held accountable for the jump in the trade deficit with China. He said ‘But the nation has held them accountable for more than one occasion already and will probably continue to do that’, and added that the earlier regime in India actually decimated Indian manufacturing capability and it never allowed Indian manufacturing to flourish. However, he said now the government is creating that ecosystem to boost domestic manufacturing.