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The US has emerged as India’s largest trading partner in 2022-23 due to growing economic ties between the two countries.
Bilateral trade between India and the US is set to grow by 7.65% to $128.55 billion in 2022-23, as against $119.5 billion in 2021-22, according to provisional data from the commerce ministry. It was $ 80.51 billion in 2020-21.
Exports to the US are set to increase by 2.81% to $78.31 billion in 2022-23 from $76.18 billion in 2021-22, while imports are set to increase by nearly 16% to $50.24 billion, the data showed.
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On the other hand, during 2022-23, India’s two-way commerce with China is set to decline by about 1.5% to $113.83 billion as against $115.42 billion in 2021-22.
Exports to China are set to decline by nearly 28% to $15.32 billion in 2022-23, while imports are expected to grow by 4.16% to $98.51 billion in the previous fiscal. The trade gap widened to $83.2 billion in the previous fiscal against $72.91 billion in 2021-22.
Experts believe that bilateral trade with the US will continue to grow in the coming years as New Delhi and Washington look to further strengthen economic ties.
Federation of Indian Export Organization (FIEO) president A. Sakthivel said rising exports of goods such as pharmaceuticals, engineering and gems and jewelery are helping India push its shipments to the US.
He said, ‘The process of increasing trade with America will continue in the coming months as well.’
FIEO Vice President Khalid Khan said that India is emerging as a reliable trading partner and global companies are reducing their dependence only on China for their supplies and expanding business to other countries like India.
“Bilateral trade between India and the US will continue to grow as our exporters are getting good orders from that country,” Mr Khan said.
Rakesh Mohan Joshi, Director, Indian Institute of Plantation Management (IIPM), Bangalore also said that India offers huge business opportunities for the US as India is the world’s third largest consumer market and the fastest growing market economy.
“Major items exported from India to US include petroleum, polished diamonds, pharmaceutical products, jewellery, light oils and petroleum, frozen shrimp, made ups, etc., while major imports from US include petroleum, rough diamonds, Liquefied natural gas, gold. Coal, waste and scrap, almonds etc,” Mr. Joshi said.
The US is one of the few countries with which India has a trade surplus. In 2022-23, India to have $28 billion trade surplus with US
The data showed that China was India’s top trading partner from 2013-14 to 2017-18 and also in 2020-21. Before China, the UAE was the country’s largest trading partner.
In 2022-23, UAE was India’s third largest trading partner with $76.16 billion. It was followed by Saudi Arabia ($52.72 billion) and Singapore ($35.55 billion).