India looks to shift sourcing of synthetic fibre & apples to US in effort to narrow trade surplus

New Delhi: India is looking to shift sourcing of certain products from other countries to the US for narrowing its trade surplus as both nations continue negotiations on a trade deal.

Towards this, New Delhi may cut apple imports from Turkey and New Zealand, and high-end fibre from China, instead sourcing them from the US, an official said.

"The process is to examine what products can be taken from the US and reduce their trade deficit. This is one strategy to increase our trade engagement," said the official.


The official said the government is looking at countries with whom India doesn't have large bilateral trade and where there is trade imbalance in favour of those nations.

India's trade rethink tracks US President Donald Trump's announcement that his administration would impose reciprocal tariffs on all countries, including India, from April 2.

India imported $300.75 million worth fresh apples in April-December FY25 with Turkey having the highest share at $65.29 million.

"There are certain high tenacity and specialty fibres which India doesn't produce and are imported from China. These can be sourced from the US," said a textile industry representative.

The exercise assumes significance as India's merchandise trade surplus with the US has been rising and was $35.33 billion in FY24. Washington is keen to balance the trade. Both sides have taken an integrated approach to strengthen and deepen bilateral trade across goods and services, increase market access and deepen supply chain integration.

The issue was discussed during a meeting the commerce and industry ministry had with industry representatives on the upcoming reciprocal tariffs and ways to improve the trade engagement with the US.

"The key issue is the cost competitiveness of American companies against Chinese firms," said an industry representative.

"We are working on trade pacts with many countries and the government is concurrently acting on several tracks, the aim of each is to ensure best interest of Indian exporters," said another official.

"In engineering goods, for normal trade items, American companies are not competitive. That's why diversion of imports from China to America is difficult," said Pankaj Chadha, chairman, EEPC.