The government informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday that the war in Iraq had not significantly affected exports from India, though Gulf countries accounted for 11 per cent of the country's total exports.
"The war in Iraq has not impacted exports significantly," Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley said during Question Hour.
He, however, said apart from temporary disruption in supplies under Oil for Food Programme, higher cost had to be incurred by exporters on account of ocean freight, insurance and disruption in transportation.
Stating that exports had recovered sharply in 2002-03, Jaitley said while the growth in 2001-02 was negative at 1.7 per cent in 2002-03 merchandise exports increased by 18.05 per cent to reach the provisional figure of $51.7 billion.