The impressive growth in the country's external trade last year notwithstanding, India still does not figure among the world's leading trading nations, according to WTO statistics.India had a total external trade- both merchandise and services- of about $238 billion in 2004. Of this, merchandise trade comprised 168 billion dollars while services trade stood at about $70 billion.With merchandise exports of $72.5 billion - a jump of 27% over 2003- the country is not among the top 30 merchandise exporters. But with 34% year-on-year rise in imports at $95.2 billion India is ranked 24 among world's top importers, the WTO statistics show.In terms of percentage, India's share in merchandise trade is just 0.8% of global exports and 1.4% in global imports.The country has a slightly better position in commercial services trade. It exported services worth $32.2 billion in 2004 to be at 22nd slot while with imports of $37.9 billion it was ranked higher at number 15. The country's share in services exports was 1.5% while it was 1.8% of global services imports.Germany with merchandise exports of $914 billion was at the top slot among exporters with 10% share in global exports followed by US, China, Japan and France. The Asian dragon registered an impressive 35% jump in exports to $593 billion to race ahead of its rival neighbour Japan.
