India-US trade ties: For smartphone exports, it's all or nothing

The imposition of reciprocal tariffs on all products by the US could adversely impact or present an opportunity to boost smartphone exports from India, led by Apple Inc that has now become the largest exports to the US based on HS code.

 

India imposes an effective import duty of 16.5 per cent on smartphones, whereas the US has a zero-duty policy.

 

The importance of smartphone exports to the US can be gauged by the fact that, until November of FY25, exports from India amounted to $4.18 billion. This made smartphones the largest export to the US in HS code terms,