The United States (US) has beaten China to become India’s top trading partner in 2021-22. It shows strong economic ties between the two countries. As per commerce ministry’s data, bilateral trade between the US and India in 2021-22 stood at $119.42 billion as against $80.51 billion in 2020-21.
2021-22, the exports to US increased to $76.11 billion from $51.62 billion in the previous fiscal year, while imports rose to $43.31 billion as compared to about $29 billion in 2020-21.
During 2021-22, India’s two-way commerce with China aggregated at $115.42 billion as compared to $86.4 billion in 2020-21, the data showed.
the last fiscal the exports to China has gone up marginally to $21.25 billion from $21.18 billion in 2020-21 whereas imports jumped to $94.16 billion from about $65.21 billion in 2020-21.
Trade experts believe that the trend of increasing bilateral trade with the US will continue in the coming years too, as New Delhi and Washington are engaged in further strengthening the economic ties.
Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) Vice-president Khalid Khan said India is emerging as a trusted trading partner and global firms are reducing their dependence on China for their supplies and are diversifying business into other countries like India.
“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,” Khan said.
America is one of the few countries with which India has a trade surplus.
In 2021-22, India had a trade surplus of $32.8 billion with the US.
From 2013-14 till 2017-18 and also in 2020-21 China was India’s top trading partner, as per data. Prior to this, UAE was the largest trading partner of India.
In 2021-22, the UAE with $72.9 billion, was the third largest trading partner of India. It was followed by Saudi Arabia ($42,85 billion), Iraq ($34.33 billion) and Singapore ($30 billion).
