Indo-US trade could rise to $500 billion by 2023-24: IACC

Kolkata: Trade between India and the US could jump to USD 500 billion by 2023-24 from about USD 142 billion at present, the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) said on Friday. Issues relating to e-commerce and high tariffs, however, could slow down trade between the two countries, and need to be resolved, a US government official said. "Current Indo-US bilateral trade is at USD 142.1 billion and we hope this can jump to USD 500 billion (by 2023-24). There are short-term issues concerning e-commerce, Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) and medical equipment," IACC president S K Sarkar said. Sarkar was speaking at an event to highlight the 'Select USA Investment Summit' here in presence of the Director General of US and Foreign Commercial Service, Department of Commerce, Ian Steff. "Whether it is e-commerce issues or high tariffs, these are issues that threaten to slow down the trade relationship that we intend to build. This is something that we need to take care of. I think, we can do so together," Steff said. India is facing a threat of withdrawal of the GSP scheme, which offers duty-free access to over 3,000 products in the US, valued at around USD 5.6 billion. Asked whether trade issues with the US and China could rebalance commerce in favour of India, Sarkar said, "India is not in a position to replace China, both in terms of quality and capacity. But it is a good signal... as we hear 200 companies will come out of China and invest in India." Sarkar also expects medical equipment imports to India to become cheaper by the end of this month.