India's trade disparity with the US: Analyzing import and export duties

New Delhi: At a time when tariff issues with the Donald Trump regime in the US, is concern for the government, data furnished by the ministry of commerce and industry shows great disparity between the average duty paid by India in the last five years, on top five items that it imports from the US and average duty of top five items that the government exports to the America.
The data was provided by minister of state for commerce and industry, Jitin Prasada, in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, in reply to written questions on import items from USA, by Trinamool Congress MP Mala Roy.
The top five import items from the US are: (1) Mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation. (2) Natural or cultured pearls, precious or semiprecious stones and articles thereof (3) Nuclear reactors, Boilers, Machinery and Mechanical appliances and parts thereof, (4) Electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof and (5) Optical, photographic, cinematographic measuring, checking precision, Medical or surgical instruments and apparatus parts and accessories, in that order. The simple average effective duty paid by India (in USD million), for these top five import items in that respective order are 4.72%, 10.947%, 8.496%, 10.193%, and 9.925%, Prasada told Lok Sabha in his tabulated reply.
The top five items in the last five years that India exported with the USA tax territory, are, (1) electrical machinery, equipment and their parts, (2) natural or cultured pearls, precious or semiprecious stones and articles thereof, (3) pharmaceutical products, (4) nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances and parts thereof and (5) mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation, in that order. The average duty (in USD million) paid by India on these five categories of items in that respective order are 1.20%, 2.10%, 0.20%, 1.30% and 0.50%.

Clearly a comparison of the import duty on top five items from the US paid by India in the last five years (from 2020 to 20204), shows that it is far higher than the export duty that it earns from the USA.
The import trade value from the US during the last five years in (USD million), are 26,909.81 in 20202, 41,316.12 in 2021, 51,308.26 in 2022, 44,410.88 in 2023 and 42,822.64 in 2024, according to the data provided by the minister.
ROY had asked for the details of the top five import items from USA with import duty tariff; the details of the import trade value from the USA during the last five years; and the details of top five export items to USA during the last five years with USA import tax territory?