New Delhi: The US has emerged as India’s biggest trading partner in 2022-23.

According to the provisional data of the commerce ministry, the bilateral trade between the two countries has increased 7.65 per cent to $128.55 billion in 2022-23 against $119.5 billion in 2021-22. It was $80.51 billion in 2020-21.

Exports to the US rose 2.81 per cent to $78.31 billionin 2022-23 against $76.18 billion in 2021-22, while importsgrew about 16 per cent to $50.24 billion, the datashowed.

On the other hand, during 2022-23, India’s two-way commerce with China declined about 1.5 per cent to $113.83 billion against $115.42 billion in 2021-22.

Exports to China dipped by about 28 per cent to $15.32 billion in 2022-23, while imports rose 4.16 per cent to $98.51 billion in the last fiscal. Trade gap widened to $83.2 billion in the last fiscal against $72.91 billion in 2021-22.

Experts believe that the trend of increasing bilateral trade with the US will continue in the coming years also as New Delhi and Washington are engaged in further strengthening the economic ties.

Federation of Indian Export Organisations (Fieo) president A. Sakthivel said that increasing exports of goods such as pharmaceutical, engineering and gems and jewellery was helping India to push its shipments to America.

“The trend of increasing trade with the US will continue in the coming months also,” he said.

Fieo vice-president Khalid Khan said India is emerging as a trusted trading partner and global firms are reducing their dependence only on China for their supplies and are diversifying business into other countries like India.

“The bilateral trade between India and the US will continue to grow as our exporters are getting good orders from that country,” Khan said.

Rakesh Mohan Joshi, director of the Indian Institute of Plantation Management (IIPM), Bangalore, also said that India provides huge trade opportunities for the US as India is the world’s third-largest consumer market and the fastest-growing market economy.