India's exports of pharmaceuticals, textiles, jewelry to US likely to go up after bilateral trade pact

Although the US is India's largest export partner, there is scope to increase exports further in areas such as smartphones, certain pharma products and labor-intensive exports such as textiles and gems and jewelry under the bilateral trade agreement (BTA) between the two countries that is expected to be signed by the fall (September-October) of this year, according to a Crisil report released recently.

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To begin with, India should be prepared to see more imports from the US under the BTA. This is because India's tariffs are much higher than those of the US, and bringing these down would be advantageous to exporters in the US, the report points out.

It highlights that the imminent bilateral trade agreement will likely lead to a reduction in India's goods trade surplus with the US.

India would be able to import more energy products, defense equipment and certain agricultural products, among others, from the US after the agreement is signed.