The U.S. recently overtook China to become India’s top trading partner, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Monday, citing new data from India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
“The value of merchandise trade between the world’s two most populous countries [China and India] reached a high of US$115.4 billion in the 2021-22 financial year that ended in March, an increase of 33.6 per cent from a year earlier,” the newspaper reported on May 30. “But it was surpassed by trade with the US, which rose 48.3 per cent to US$119.4 billion.”
The SCMP detailed import and export figures between India, China, and the U.S. over the past fiscal year, writing:
Indian imports from China, mainly machines and electronics, rose 44.4 per cent to US$94.2 billion, but its China-bound shipments grew only 0.3 per cent to US$21.3 billion.
On the contrary, its exports to the US jumped 47.4 per cent from a year earlier to US$76.11 billion, while imports rose 50 per cent to US$43.31 billion.
India recorded a US$32.8 billion trade surplus from the US last year, compared with a deficit of US$72.9 billion with China.
Beijing has consistently been New Delhi’s top trading partner over the past nine years, with the exception of two recent fiscal years when the U.S. claimed the title.
“In 2018-19, the US first surpassed China to become India’s top trading partner,” the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported in July 2020.
“The US remained India’s top trading partner for the second consecutive fiscal in 2019-20, which shows increasing economic ties between the two countries,” PTI observed at the time.
In addition to the U.S. and China, New Delhi’s top trading partners include Australia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), Iraq, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea.
India has a population of approximately 1.38 billion while China boasts a population of about 1.41 billion. The two Asian giants share not only the two largest populations on Earth but also a largely unmarked land border throughout much of the Himalayan mountain range.
The neighbors have been engaged in an unofficial border stand-off in the western Himalayas since June 2020. Chinese troops launched a surprise attack on an Indian border regiment stationed in northern India’s Ladakh state on June 15. A bloody skirmish ensued in the local Galwan Valley and resulted in the deaths of at least 45 Chinese troops and 20 Indian soldiers.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched an economic initiative in April 2020 designed to make New Delhi less reliant on foreign supply chains, especially those based in China. Modi said the Chinese coronavirus pandemic exposed India’s excessive dependence on trade with Beijing.
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