Helped by a robust 15 per cent export growth in 2002, India has held on to its 30th position among merchandise exporting countries. The country's merchandise exports were valued at $50 billion as against $43.6 billion in 2001.

On the services front, however, India slipped two notches to the 21st position with earnings from commercial services exports estimated at $20.7 billion in 2002 compared to $20.4 billion in 2001.

India's share in global services exports, estimated at $1.54 billion, fell to 1.3 per cent in 2002 as against 1.4 per cent in the previous year, according to the World Trade Organisation's 'World Trade Figures 2002' released in Geneva today. In calculating the export figures, the WTO had treated exports from the European Union countries separately.

The country's share in merchandise exports increased from 0.7 per cent in 2001 to 0.8 per cent in 2002. The government wants to capture 1 per cent of the global merchandise exports pie by 2007.

On the imports side, India was ranked 24th on the list of merchandise importers, with imports valued at $56.3 billion. It was 12 per cent higher than the $49.6 billion merchandise imports bill in 2001, when the country was ranked 27th. Services imports, however, fell 14 per cent to $15.5 billion in 2002.

During 2002, India had a trade deficit of $6.3 billion on the merchandise front, while it had a surplus of $5.2 billion in the commercial services trade. In 2001, the country's deficit from the merchandise trade was estimated at $6 billion, while in services the deficit was pegged at $3 billion.

A WTO release said that a strong demand in the United States and the large Asian economies resulted in a 2.5 per cent growth in the merchandise trade in 2002, up from a decrease of 1 per cent in 2001.

It, however, said trade growth was uneven and masked the sluggish trade performance in many regions. For 2003, the report painted a grim picture and forecast a 3 per cent growth as against the average growth rate of 6.7 per cent during the nineties.

The US remained the world's largest merchandise exporter as well as importer. Its exports were valued at $693.5 billion, which accounted for 10.8 per cent of the global share.

US imports were estimated at $1.2 trillion and accounted for 18 per cent of the global share. Germany, Japan and France followed the US in the exports sweepstakes and the top four countries accounted for nearly a third of the world merchandise exports estimated at $6.4 trillion in 2002.

The year also saw China overtake United Kingdom to become the fifth largest exporter with exports of $325.6 billion. In 2001, China was ranked sixth with exports valued at $266.2 billion.