India us trade deficit by country


President Trump is fulfilling his promise to promote fair and reciprocal trade for American farmers, ranchers and manufacturers by enforcing trade laws and holding our trading partners accountable. Under his leadership, USTR will build upon these enforcement efforts and continue to identify and break down foreign trade barriers for American exporters. South African authorities require conformity assessment that demonstrates that IT products imported into that country meet the relevant South African standard.

The National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications, part of the South African Bureau of Standards, had been taking nearly a year to issue the required documentation. The resulting delays were especially damaging to U. Following direct engagement with South African authorities, the timeframe required to issue the letters has dropped to about 80 days.

Prior to JanuarySouth Africa required that exports of U. This requirement restricted exports of U. In response to U. In JanuaryJapan recognized a number of U. In SeptemberJapan agreed to expand market access for U. Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights: InArgentine authorities undertook significant enforcement actions against the sale of counterfeit goods.

In Augustfollowing U. This corrected the original circular which did not include the United States and would have been a significant impediment to digital trade. The United States gained immediate tariff elimination for U. Inthe United States worked closely with Peruvian prosecutors and members of the Peruvian National Police to coordinate IPR enforcement, including a September seizure of the domain for pelis The site infringed india us trade deficit by country more than 5, properties belonging to U.

Simplifying Declaration of Origin: For many years, U. The new simplified procedure went into effect on January 10, China also conditions foreign investment approvals on technology transfers to Chinese entities; mandates adverse licensing terms on foreign IP licensors; uses anti-monopoly enforcement to extract technology on unreasonable terms; and subsidizes acquisitions of foreign high-technology firms to bring technology to Chinese parent companies.

Additionally, structural gaps and inconsistencies in intellectual property rights protection and enforcement allow Chinese entities to appropriate foreign IP.

For example, misappropriation of trade secrets for the benefit of Chinese companies has occurred both within China and outside of China. Chinese government industrial policies and financial support have contributed to massive excess capacity in China, with the resulting over-production and increased exports distorting global markets and hurting U.

In addition, China would impose severe restrictions on cross-border data flows and requirements for data localization. Notwithstanding the negative India us trade deficit by country. However, implementation remains incomplete. On March 28,an agreement in india us trade deficit by country was announced and the agreement is being finalized.

Korea will address long-standing concerns with onerous and costly verification procedures through agreement on principles for conducting verification of origin of exports under KORUS and establish a working group to monitor and address future issues that arise. Price Controls on Medical Devices: InIndia implemented price controls on coronary stents and knee implants that do not fully differentiate for advanced technologies within a product class.

India has indicated it may apply similar price india us trade deficit by country on additional medical devices. India continues to maintain some of the highest average tariff rates worldwide. For example, in India increased tariffs on pulses from zero to 30 and 50 percent. India also raised tariffs on certain high-tech information and communication technology products from zero to between 10 and 20 percent.

The United States continues to raise these concerns through bilateral engagement with the Indian government, including through the U. Southeast Asian governments india us trade deficit by country implementing measures that favor national monopolies and champions at the expense of U.

Vietnam is implementing a plan to develop its own local electronic payments industry by requiring that all credit and debit payment transactions be processed by a government-owned monopoly, the National Payments Corporation of Vietnam NAPAS. Implementation of the new system has been postponed until January The United States continues to urge Vietnam to adopt a competitive approach in which U.

In OctoberVietnam released Decreewhich imposes india us trade deficit by country new requirements on imports, including new certification and testing requirements. The decree took effect on January 1, and has resulted in significant trade disruptions. The United States continues to engage Vietnam for a solution to these concerns that allows trade to resume for the benefit of both countries.

Skip to main content. Bilateral Investment Treaties Other Initiatives. Among the notable changes in the last year in the U. Colombia Movement of Data: Guatemala Chicken Leg Quarters: Peru Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights: Greater Access for U.

Korea will double the number of U. Harmonization of Testing Requirements: Standards for Auto Parts: Korea will recognize U.

Let me begin by thanking Chairwoman Ros-Lehtinen and members of the subcommittee for inviting me to testify on the growing U. No aspect of American trade is talked about more and understood less than the trade deficit. It has been cited as conclusive proof of unfair trade barriers abroad and a lack of competitiveness among U.

It has been blamed for destroying jobs and dragging down economic growth. None of these charges are true. The most important economic truth to grasp about the U. And those flows are determined by how much the people of a nation save and invest - two variables that are only marginally affected by trade policy.

By definition, the balance of payments always equals zero - that is, what a country buys or gives away in the global market must equal what it sells or receives - because of the exchange nature of trade.

People, whether trading across a street or across an ocean, will generally not give india us trade deficit by country something without receiving something of comparable value in return. The double-entry nature of international bookkeeping means that, for a nation as a whole, the value of what it gives to the rest of the world will be matched by the value of what it receives. The balance of payments accounts capture two sides of an equation: The current account side of the ledger covers the flow of goods, services, investment income, and uncompensated transfers such as foreign aid and remittances across india us trade deficit by country by private citizens.

Within the current account, the trade balance includes goods and services only, and the merchandise trade balance reflects goods only. On the other side, the capital account includes the buying and selling of investment assets such as real estate, stocks, bonds, and government securities. The necessary balance between the current account and the capital account implies a direct connection between the trade balance on the one hand and the savings and investment india us trade deficit by country on the other.

That relationship is captured in the simple formula:. Thus, a nation india us trade deficit by country saves more than it invests, such as Japan, will export its excess savings in the form of net foreign investment. In other words, it must run a capital account deficit. The money sent abroad as investment will return to the country as payments for its exports, which will be in excess of what the country imports, creating a india us trade deficit by country trade surplus.

A nation that invests more than it saves - the United States, for example - must import capital from abroad. In other words, it must run a capital account surplus. The transmission belt that links the capital and current accounts is the exchange rate. As more net investment flows into the United States, demand rises for the dollars needed to buy U. As the dollar grows stronger relative to other currencies, U.

Falling exports and rising imports adjust the trade balance until it matches the net inflow of capital. In effect, foreign investors will outbid foreign consumers for limited U. Of course, most day-to-day currency transactions are not directly related to india us trade deficit by country, but demand for U. Germany in the early s offers a case study of how this mechanism works.

What caused the switch was the huge increase in domestic investment needed to rebuild formerly communist eastern Germany. An increase in domestic investment repatriated a huge amount of German savings that had been flowing abroad, thus reducing the amount of German marks in the foreign currency markets and raising their value relative to other currencies.

The causal link between investment flows, exchange rates, and the balance of trade explains why protectionism cannot cure a trade deficit. If Congress were to implement that awful idea, American imports would probably decline as intended.

But fewer imports would mean fewer dollars flowing into the international currency markets, raising the value of the dollar relative to other currencies. The stronger dollar would make U. Exports would fall and imports would rise until the trade balance matched the savings and investment balance. Without a change in aggregate levels of savings and investment, the trade deficit would remain largely unaffected.

All the new tariff barriers would accomplish would be to reduce the volume of both imports and exports, leaving Americans poorer by depriving them of additional gains from the specialization that accompanies expanding international trade. Government export subsidies would be equally ineffective in reducing the trade deficit. Partly in response to the Asian financial crisis, President Clinton proposed in his federal budget an increase in subsidies to U.

By allowing certain exporters to lower their prices on sales abroad, the subsidies would stimulate foreign demand, but the greater demand for dollars needed to buy U.

The stronger dollar, in turn, would raise the effective price of U. Total exports, and hence the trade deficit, would remain unchanged.

Subsidies only divert exports from less favored to more favored sectors. For example, a higher tariff india us trade deficit by country presumably raise government revenue through additional customs duties, thus reducing the budget deficit or increasing the surplus and reducing the need to borrow from abroad - resulting in a smaller trade deficit. But a tariff can also stimulate investment in the protected industry, increasing demand for foreign capital and leading to a larger trade deficit.

After surveying the various theories, Labor Department economist Robert C. Another temptation is to intervene by intentionally devaluing the national currency in the foreign exchange market. A falling currency can stimulate exports and dampen demand for imports, thus reducing a trade deficit.

However, a cheaper currency also means that asset values in that country drop in foreign currency terms, attracting india us trade deficit by country investment flows that increase the capital account and the corresponding current account deficit. And eventually the india us trade deficit by country currency feeds back into the domestic economy in the form of higher overall prices, that is, inflation.

One way to reduce the trade deficit would be for Americans to save more. A larger pool of national savings would reduce demand for foreign capital; with less foreign capital flowing into the country, the gap between what we buy from abroad and what we sell would shrink. A related way to cut the trade deficit is for the government to borrow less. The inflow of foreign capital prompted by the budget deficit allowed Americans to buy even more goods and services than they sold in the international marketplace.

Another, less appealing way to reduce the trade deficit is to reduce investment. That occurs more or less naturally during times of recession, when business confidence falls and companies cut back on expansion plans. As Americans consume and invest less, demand for imports and foreign capital falls along with the trade deficit. That explains why the smallest U. In fact, the U. That is exactly what happened to Mexico in Perhaps NAFTA critics who believe our bilateral trade deficit with Mexico is such a terrible development would have preferred that the U.

Of course, American workers would have suffered, but it would have done india us trade deficit by country for our bilateral trade balance. An understanding of the all-important role of investment flows should liberate trade policy from its obsessive focus on the current account balance.

The trade deficit is not a function of trade policy, and therefore trade policy cannot be a tool for reducing the trade deficit. Misunderstanding of the U. The following are among the most common and harmful myths surrounding the trade deficit. Countries with which the United States runs large deficits are not characteristically more protectionist toward U.

Canada and Mexico, two countries that are very open to U. Americans face a common external tariff when exporting to members of the European Union, yet some EU members the Netherlands and Belgium are among india us trade deficit by country top surplus trade partners, and others Germany and Italy are among the top deficit partners. Trade policy cannot explain those differences.

Blaming bilateral deficits exclusively on india us trade deficit by country in trade policy once again misses the reality of investment flows. In Japan, high domestic savings rates provide a pool of capital that far exceeds domestic investment opportunities. That allowed a tsunami of Japanese savings to flow across the Pacific to the United States, where it could draw a more favorable rate of return.

Despite the common perception, Japan was actually more open to U. The same cannot be said for our bilateral deficit with China. Despite substantial progress in the last 10 years, its barriers to imports remain relatively high. Those barriers partly explain the bilateral surplus China runs with the United States, but the primary explanation is more benign: We like to consume the products China sells.

China similarly runs bilateral surpluses with Japan and Europe for this reason. A rising dollar caused by increased demand for U. If the United States were to impose higher tariffs aimed at imports from China say, by revoking its Normal Trade Relations statusthat too might reduce the bilateral deficit, but not the overall U. Higher tariffs against Chinese imports would merely shift some of the bilateral trade deficit to other countries while raising prices for American consumers.

Since the Cuomo Commission report, the United States has enjoyed seven consecutive years of healthy, noninflationary growth along with historically large and rising trade deficits. Meanwhile, Japan and Germany, the two export-driven juggernauts that were supposed to eclipse the United States as economic powers in the s, have struggled with slow growth and rising unemployment.

Industrial production in the United States has climbed steadily in the past two decades during a time of historically large U. Between andwhen the U. The same story has repeated itself in the s. Between and the annual U. Meanwhile, since total industrial production in the United States has surged by 24 percent and manufacturing production by 27 percent. In Japan during the same period, industrial production has grown by only 8 percent, and in Germany growth has been less than 1 percent.

America runs substantial bilateral trade deficits with both countries. Between andU. By any definition, the ability of American industry to compete in the world has not suffered because of a rising trade deficit. The experience of the s and s points in quite the opposite direction.

A study by the Institute for Policy Studies in January predicts that the larger trade deficit caused by the East Asian financial meltdown will india us trade deficit by country the U. Columnist Patrick Buchanan, when running unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination inoffered his own, back-of-the-envelope estimate of jobs lost because of the trade gap: The total number of jobs in the United States is largely determined by fundamental macroeconomic factors such as labor-supply growth and monetary policy.

Trade with other nations does not reduce the number of jobs, but it does quicken the pace at which production shifts from one sector to another. Trade, like new technology, lowers demand for some jobs while raising demand for others.

Singapore increased its import purchases from India from to by In second place was China with a Vietnam boosted its imports from India by United Arab Emirates was the only top trade partner to cut back on its imports from India, posting a modest 0. As defined by Investopedia, a country whose total india us trade deficit by country of all imported goods is higher than its value of all exports is said to have a negative trade balance or deficit.

It would be unrealistic for any exporting nation to expect across-the-board positive trade balances with all its importing partners. India incurred the highest trade deficits with the following countries:. India incurred the highest trade surpluses with the following countries:. India placed 54 corporations on the Forbes Global rankings. Many of these are major Indian export companies.

Below is a selection of some of the biggest Indian corporations. The World Factbook, Field Listing: Imports — CommoditiesCentral Intelligence Agency. Accessed on India us trade deficit by country 27, TradeIndia.

Accessed on March 27, World's Top Exports Trade metrics that inspire global thinking. India incurred the highest trade deficits with the following countries: India incurred the highest trade surpluses with the following countries: AsiaImport NewsIndiaTop partners. It can be awfully cold in the US state of Alaska, but can you identify Alaska's hottest export product for earning cash: Pacific salmon, Alaskan pollock, sockeye salmon, zinc or lead?

Get the scoop here! Terms and Conditions Respecting Your Privacy. Return to top of page.