Composition and Direction of Trade:

The impact of trade reforms can be observed from the changing structure of India's  foreign  trade in  terms of diversity  of  production  and markets  and also  in the form of higher degree of  trade openness. India's export basket has changed in favor of technology-intensive and manufactured products along with high value-added agricultural products. India's trade is no longer confined to a few rich developed countries; developing countries have also emerged important markets for India's exports and its source of imports.  Importantly, composition of imports has also changed in the post-liberalization period.

A glance at structure of India's exports reveals that its manufactured exports accounted for more than three-fourths of its total exports during 1990s and subsequently. However,  relative  importance  of  these export  products show that chemicals  and allied products, engineering goods, readymade garments, gems and  jeweler have been the key drivers of  this phenomenal growth. While the importance of primary products in the export basket witnessed a decline during 1990s and early years of the new millennium, a new category of exports viz., petroleum products exports have shown a high rise since 2000.