New Delhi: The US on Friday expressed concern over the trade deficit with India and the challenges being faced by American companies to invest here.
Addressing the Indo-US Economic Summit here, US minister counselor for commercial affairs Aileen Nandi hoped to explore possibilities at the US-India Business CEO Forum to strike a trade balance between the two countries.
As per the Indian government’s data, India’s exports to the US during 2018-19 were worth about $52.4 billion while imports stood at $35.55 billion. The US trade deficit with India during 2018-19 stood at $16.85 billion, lower than $21.26 billion in the preceding year.
“Bilateral trade relationship with India is broad and complex. The trade between the two countries has increased every year in the recent past. However, we are concerned about the trade deficit that we have with India,” Nandi said.
The two-way trade stood at $142 billion during 2018. During January-July 2019, it increased 10.5 per cent over the last year period. Ms Nandi noted that the US was aware of the challenges that US companies continue to face in India.
Ms Nandi, in a statement later, said that since the political relationship between India and the US had begun to grow and diversify in a conciliatory mode and big ticket Indian businessmen aggressively making their investments in the US, the two-way trade would flourish in a manner that would address the concern of increasing trade deficit of the US towards India. Asserting that there is scope to further boost trade with the US, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce National President S.K. Sarkar said the target is to achieve a bilateral trade of $500 billion by 2022.
Agriculture, defence, food processing and host of similar sectors assume large possibilities, he said.
