Frequency of Trade Obstacles for India’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

The Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have emerged as the major export driven markets in India. The constant improvement of MSMEs exports and its contribution to GDP for last two decades was most significant. The MSMEs performance not only in production and export growth but also in the employment generation was appreciable. It results further the MSMEs capability has increased to compete in the international markets. But, the MSMEs sector attempt to internationalyse, often encountered trade obstacles. Therefore, this paper identifies the frequency of trade obstacles imposed by the major countries on the specified products. The results of the analysis revealed that exports subjected to affect trade barriers was high in the products of food & allied products, cotton & textiles, chemicals, industrial goods, engineering and electrical goods. The countries such as USA, EU, UAE, Japan, Canada, Australia and Turkey were likely to impose trade barriers more systematically. The highest frequency of trade barriers on MSME products were standards followed by customs, import restrictions, labeling and anti-dumping. Therefore, it is essential to eliminate the existing trade obstacles and sustain the business environment that reinforces the international competitiveness of MSMEs. Keywords: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, export growth, gross domestic product, employment, international markets, trade obstacles