A common argument used to improve India's trade competitiveness is that the rupee is strong and needs to be devalued to make exports competitive in world markets. However, this argument fails in the face of recent trends in both the exchange rate and the real effective exchange rate in recent months. Both of these indices remained stable over the last fiscal year and, in fact, declined slightly in August as exports continued to show a downward trend. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayThere wasn't much strength. Indian policymakers must recognize that the trade challenge for India is structural in nature and cannot be eliminated with quick fixes. Cost incentives are an acceptable approach to address immediate challenges such as the impact of GST, but need to be complemented with long-term solutions. An effective measure could be to identify sectors where India has a comparative advantage and work to make it competitive. This involves helping them with action research for market development and providing research and development support. Such an approach will allow manufacturers to innovate and generate productivity gains. Secondly, India's poor logistics network is also a factor of concern. Since India is overly dependent on its road networks, logistics costs as a percentage of GDP stand at almost 13-14% compared to 7-8% in developed countries. Third, India's trade agreements with other nations are largely deficient in nature. The country's major exports face tariff and non-tariff barriers in developing economies and various types of non-tariff barriers in developed ones. Furthermore, most of its free trade and preferential trade agreements are ill-conceived in nature. The India-Japan CEPA is a case in point. India has failed to derive any benefit from it simply because it is too cumbersome. For example, Japan allows duty-free import of Indian clothing only if the sourcing of raw materials is from either country, with the exception of 7% by weight which may be sourced from a third country. Another example is the South Asian Free Trade Agreement, signed for geopolitical rather than commercial reasons. Multiple issues plague the export sector of the Indian economy, many of which go beyond the scope of the FTP. The government should now delve deeper into these structural aspects of trade policy before India further loses its comparative advantage in global markets. Now that China is slowly losing its status as a global manufacturing hub, the time has never been more ripe.