India-America Trade Hits New Record, Accounts For $113 Billion In 2021

The bilateral trade between India and USA crossed the $100 million mark in 2021. This made it the largest volume of goods traded between the two countries in a calendar year, to date.

New Delhi: India and USA’s trade relations have deepened as the two hit the $100 million trade record for the first time in their history in the financial year 2021. This represents a whopping 45% jump from the previous year.

Even though USA’s trade with its top 15 partners increased in 2021, the biggest one was with India. At the same time, India was also able to maintain a trade surplus in the relationship with the US.

The US Census Bureau released figures which reveal that the bilateral goods trade between the two countries was worth $113.391 billion between January to December 2021. In this, India’s export amounted to $73 billion and the imports were worth approximately $40 billion.

During the pandemic year 2020, owing to the trade and economic restrictions, the bilateral trade between India and USA fell to a little over $78.2 billion from $92.1 billion which was accounted for in 2019.

The reason behind this increased spike in trade is the fact that the demand for Indian goods has increased in the US market. President and CEO of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), Mukesh Aghi said, “The US has seen consumption-driven growth in the past year. There was pent-up demand for items such as jewellery and electronics, which has got channelled in the last six months. The fact that US companies have also sought to diversify their supply chains has played a role, too. Electronic component markets have moved production to India. For instance, Apple now exports a million smartphones from India to the US every month.” He added that the challenge at hand right now was to sustain the momentum.

Richard M Rossow, the Wadhwani Chair in US-India Policy Studies at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the foremost expert of the bilateral economic relationship in Washington DC, said that the push by former President Donal Trump’s administration to sell American hydrocarbons to India was the key factor that enabled the current numbers.

An official familiar with the bilateral ties of the two countries further revealed to Hindustan Times that another reason behind this feat was India’s concentrated attempts to deepen ties with American economic stakeholders.

India is currently working with big economies such as Australia, the UK, European Union, Canada and the USA to push through larger trade agreements.