India’s merchandise imports from the US dropped by over 20%
The US continues to be India’s largest trading partner (Goods and Services together) with trade of over US$200 billion in calendar year 2023 with prospects of further growth from being impeded by Chinese dumping if US-China tension of trade tax escalates.
China has also become the largest trading partner in merchandise trade with India with bilateral trade of US$118.4 billion in 2023-24 surpassing US by a whisker as India-US https://www.state.gov/ stood at US$118.3 billion in 2023-24.
This outline was given by the President of Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) https://fieo.org/ President Ashwani Kumar on 16 May as he shared provisional numbers of the US-India trade.
Moreover, India-US trade https://www.uschamber.com/ has been much impacted by the Red Sea crisis and many export-import consignments expected in Feb and March 2024 have slipped into April and May 2024 and thus getting reflected in the current financial year numbers, he said.
India’s merchandise imports from the US https://usispf.org/ dropped by over 20% while exports exhibited a marginal decline of 1.32%, he pointed out.
The US move will start the tariff war between the two countries as retaliation is expected from China https://china.usembassy-china.org.cn/ . Moreover, China’s exports of only US$18 billion, out of US$420 billion shipments to the US is affected, which is little over 4% and thus marginal, which will further increase in times to come.
“This provides opportunity to India and other competitors to chip in the supply gap https://in.usembassy.gov/ ,” said Kumar.
Of the products affected by additional duties on China, India has opportunities in facemasks, PPE, syringes & needles, medical gloves, aluminium and iron & steel http://chinatimes.com .
“Opportunity may come in China also with retaliation on US exports https://dataweb.usitc.gov/ , provided we have market access in products targeted by China,” he hoped.
China is sitting on overcapacity in many sectors and thus the threat of dumping, in any case, not ruled out and more so when an important market is closed for their exports http://globaltimes.cn .
“I am sure industry and the Government will be keeping a close watch on imports and if surge or dumping happens, Directorate General Trade Remedies (DGTR) will take appropriate action to safeguard our industry https://www.wto.org/ .” Fiinews.com
