US Beats China To Become #1 Trading Partner Of India: $119.42 Billion Worth Of Goods, Services Traded In One Year

Latest updates indicate that the US surpassed China to become India’s top trading partner in 2021-22, this way reflecting strengthening economic ties between the two countries.

Strengthening Trade Ties Between India And US

During 2021-22, the bilateral trade between the US and India stood at USD 119.42 billion, as per the data from the commerce Ministry.

in 2020-21, the trade stood at USD 80.51 billion.

The exports to the US increased to USD 76.11 billion in 2021-22 which was USD 51.62 billion in the previous fiscal year. 

Similarly, imports rose to USD 43.31 billion as compared to about USD 29 billion in 2020-21. 

Further,the data shows that India’s two-way commerce with China aggregated at USD 115.42 billion in 2021-22 as compared to USD 86.4 billion in 2020-21.

Increase In Imports and Exports

There is a marginal increase in exports to China, which was USD 21.25 billion last fiscal year from USD 21.18 billion in 2020-21.

In terms of imports, there is a huge jump of USD 94.16 billion from about USD 65.21 billion in 2020-21.

This way, the trade gap rose to USD 72.91 billion in 2021-22 compared to USD 44 billion in the previous fiscal year.

Increase In Bilateral Trade

According to the Trade experts, the trend of increasing bilateral trade with the US will continue in the coming years.

This will also be affected as New Delhi and Washington are engaged in further strengthening the economic ties.

India is emerging as a trusted trading partner and global firms are reducing their dependence only on China for their supplies and are diversifying business into other countries like India, said Khalid Khan, Federation of Indian Export Organisations Vice President. 

Further adding, “In the coming years, the bilateral trade between India and the US will continue to grow. India has joined a US-led initiative to set up an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and this move would help boost economic ties further,”.

The Director of the Indian Institute of Plantation Management (IIPM), Rakesh Mohan Joshi said, “Major export items from India to the US include petroleum polished diamonds, pharmaceutical products, jewellery, 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,” Joshi said. 

It is noteworthy here that America is one of the few countries with which India has a trade surplus.

Basically, China was India’s top trading partner from 2013-14 till 2017-18 and also in 2020-21,as per the data. 

Before that, the UAE was the country’s largest trading partner. 

With USD 72.9 billion, the UAE was the third-largest trading partner of India in 2021-22 followed by Saudi Arabia (USD 42,85 billion), Iraq (USD 34.33 billion), and Singapore (USD 30 billion).