New Delhi: India has now entered a trade skirmish of its own with the US, never mind the latter’s larger ongoing war with China.
Last week, the Modi government imposed higher tariffs on 29 American products in retaliation to the Donald Trump administration’s move to withdraw India’s General System of Preferences (GSP) privileges — allowing for duty-free exports of over 3,000 products.
The developments come days ahead of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to India on 24 June.
As a troubling scenario emerges for India’s trade with the US, ThePrint presents an overview of Indian imports — what the top products are and where they come from.
India’s major imports
According to India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry data for the financial year 2018-19, mineral products dominated India’s imports at 32.6 per cent — including crude oil at 18 per cent, coal briquettes at 4.7 per cent and petroleum gas at 2.9 per cent.
Precious metals, including gold and diamonds, stood next at 12.5 per cent of the total imports.
Electrical machinery and equipment at 10.12 per cent made up another sizeable part of imports. Under this category, the major items included telephones at 2.7 per cent, broadcasting equipment at 1.8 per cent, computers at 1.1 per cent and semiconductor devices at 1.1 per cent.
Non-electrical machinery imports, including nuclear reactors, boilers, and all other non-electrical equipment, accounted for 8.52 per cent.
The metals import added up to 6 per cent. Iron and steel at 2.4 per cent had the largest share in it, while articles of iron and steel at 1 per cent, copper at 1 per cent, and aluminium at 1.1 per cent formed some of the other components under this category.
At 5.8 per cent, chemical imports formed the next big sector. The major chemicals imported were cyclic hydrocarbons, acyclic alcohols, nitrogen heterocyclic compounds, chemical fertilizers, and phosphoric acid.
Some of the other Indian imports for fiscal 2019 included plastic at 3 per cent, animal and vegetable oils and products at 1.9 per cent, fertilisers at 1.3 per cent, non-railways vehicles at 1.4 per cent, and maritime transport vehicles at 1.1 per cent.
The other smaller categories included edible fruits, vegetables and nuts, ores, slag and ash, rubber and articles, paper and articles.
Also read: Indian meat exporters urge China to end controls for its own good
India’s key trading partners
During 2018-19, India’s five largest import partners, by value, were China (13.6 per cent), US (6.9 per cent), United Arab Emirates (5.7 per cent), Saudi Arabia (5.5 per cent) and Iraq (4.3 per cent), showed official data.
In dollar terms, the respective figures for China, US, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Iraq were $70.3 billion, $35.5 billion, $29.7 billion, $28.4 billion and $22.3 billion.
Although China’s share of total Indian imports fell from 16.4 per cent in 2016-17 to 13.6 per cent in 2018-19 — as India looks to balance the trade deficit — it still accounted for the largest share.
According to MIT Labs’ Observatory of Economic Complexity data, 56 per cent of imports from China during 2016-17 were machines. These included telephones, broadcast equipment, semiconductor devices, computers, office machine parts, video displays, broadcasting accessories, electrical transformers and air pumps.
The US, with which India is now the middle of a trade conflict, stood second in the list of partners, predominantly exporting machines, precious metals, chemical products and mineral products.
The next three import partners — UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Iran — mainly accounted for India’s crude oil supplies. The country’s additional crude and petroleum gas supplies came from Iran and Qatar.
Beyond the top five partners, India also heavily imported from other economies across the world. The ones to feature in the top 20 import destinations (in order of value) were: Switzerland, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Germany, Iran, Australia, Japan, Nigeria, Malaysia, Qatar, Belgium, United Kingdom, and Thailand.
Also read: Indian investors brace for pain on poor growth, US trade concessions loss