India's trade deficit with China hits record $99.2 bn on import surge

India's exports to China fell 14.5% to $1.5 billion in March from a year earlier, with total exports dropping to $14.3 billion in the 12-months period, data showed

India recorded a trade deficit of $99.2 billion with China in the 2024/25 fiscal year that ended in March, trade data showed, driven by a surge in imports of electronics goods and consumer durables.

The data comes as US President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause last week on most tariff hikes for major trading partners including India, while sharply increasing levies on Chinese goods, stoking fears that Chinese firms may divert goods to other markets.

In March alone, goods imports from China jumped over 25 per cent year-on-year to $9.7 billion, led by electronics, electric batteries and solar cells. Total imports from China rose to $113.5 billion in 12-months through March, according to detailed trade data released by commerce ministry on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, India's exports to China fell 14.5 per cent to $1.5 billion in March from a year earlier, with total exports dropping to $14.3 billion in the 12-months period, data showed.

"This is a wake-up call for India, as the rising imports reflect deeper structural dependencies of the Indian economy," said Ajay Srivastava, founder of Global Trade Initiative, a Delhi-based trade policy think tank.

India's rising exports of electronics goods, pharmaceuticals and engineering goods are also fuelling imports from Chinese, due to their heavy dependence on imported components, he said.

India's exports to China are now lower than in 2013/14, despite a significantly stronger rupee back then, Srivastava said, and warned that imports could rise by about 20 per cent in the current fiscal year as Chinese firms are re-routing exports to several markets, for exports to the US

China emerged as India's second biggest trading partner in 2024/25, with two-way trade of $127.7 billion, after the United States, the data showed.

The government plans to set up a monitoring unit to track a surge in cheaper imports from countries like China, and warned firms against helping foreign exporters bypass US tariffs, officials said on Tuesday.  (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)