Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: With increasing, strengthening, and deepening economic ties between the two countries, the USA emerged as India’s biggest trading partner in 2022-23, according to the provisional data of the Union Commerce Ministry.
The bilateral trade between India and the US increased by 7.65 percent to USD 128.55 in 2022-23, compared to USD 119.5 billion in FY22, and USD 80.51 billion in FY21.
America is among the few countries with which India has a trade surplus. In 2022-23, India had a trade surplus of USD 28 billion with the US.
Exports from India to the US rose by 2.81 percent to USD 78.31 billion in 2022-23 as against USD 76.18 billion in 2021-22, while imports grew by about 16 percent to USD 50.24 billion, the data showed.
In contrast, India’s bilateral commerce with China declined by about 1.5 percent to USD 113.83 billion in FY23 as against USD 115.42 billion in FY22.
Exports to China declined by about 28 percent to USD 15.32 billion in 2022-23, while imports rose by 4.16 percent to USD 98.51 billion in the last fiscal. The trade gap widened to USD 83.2 billion in the last fiscal as against USD 72.91 billion in 2021-22.
The trend of increasing bilateral trade with the US is expected to continue in the coming years also as New Delhi and Washington are like to strengthen their economic ties further in the coming years.
According to A. Sakthivel, President of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), increasing exports of goods like pharmaceuticals, engineering, gems, and jewelry is helping India to push its shipments to America.
“The trend of increasing trade with the US will continue in the coming months also,” he said.
FIEO Vice President Khalid Khan said India is emerging as a trusted trading partner and global firms are reducing their dependence only on China for their supplies and are diversifying their businesses into other countries like India.
“The bilateral trade between India and the US will continue to grow as our exporters are getting good orders from that country,” he said.
Rakesh Mohan Joshi, Director of the Indian Institute of Plantation Management (IIPM), Bangalore, said that India, the world’s third-largest consumer market and the fastest-growing market economy. provides huge trade opportunities for the US.
“Major export items from India to the US include petroleum, polished diamonds, pharmaceutical products, jewelry, light oils and petroleum, frozen shrimp, made-ups, etc. whereas major imports from the US include petroleum, rough diamonds, liquified natural gas, gold, coal, waste and scrap, almonds, etc,” he said.
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, the UAE with USD 76.16 billion, was the third largest trading partner of India, followed by Saudi Arabia (USD 52.72 billion), and Singapore (USD 35.55 billion).