Trade imbalance remains as US imported more than it exported to India.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: The US Census Bureau released the numbers for trade between the US and India from January through November of last year, and the statistics show a small decrease in the amount of both imports and exports that were exchanged between the two countries compared to the previous year.
Total exports going out of the US and into India were $20.316 billion, while imports coming from India into the US were $38.810 billion. The disparity between exports and imports is typical, as there’s generally anywhere from $10-$20 billion of difference between the two. This year’s difference is $18.494 billion
But both those numbers are lower than their corresponding values from 2012. That year, exports were $22.105 billion, while imports totaled $40.514 billion, with a difference of $18.409 billion – not too far off from what the 2013 amount is. Both the 2012 import and export values stand as record high amounts for US-India trade.
April and May proved to be noticeably import-heavy months for US goods coming from India. The former brought in $4.075 billion worth of goods in April and $4.201 billion in May, while exporting just $1.655 billion and $1.956 billion, respectively. Meanwhile, the peak month for exporting was July, when the US sent $2.397 billion worth of goods to India, while importing $3.419 billion. India also cracked into the top 10 trade partners for the US in April and May.
The content of the commerce between the US and India continues to be largely precious stones, metals, and textiles. According to the Indian Embassy, those products accounted for nearly 40% of imports the US received from India in the first quarter of 2013 alone. The rest of the goods fall under several different categories such as pharmaceutical products, organic materials, iron and steel products, machinery parts (electrical and otherwise), and mineral fuels and oils.
As of November 2013, India was the 11th largest trading partner for the US, accounting for 1.7% of America’s total international trade amount. For perspective, Canada came in at number one and accounted for 16.5% of US trade, China was #2 with 14.5%, and Mexico #3 with 13.2%. After that, all trade partner percentages drop into the low single digits — #4, Japan, accounted for 5.2% of total US trade.
The top 15 countries, in order, were: Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, Germany, South Korea, the UK, France, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, India, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Italy. Together, they accounted for roughly 72.5% of US trade in 2013.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com