India’s exports to the US down 28.5 pc in the last five months due to high tariffs: GTRI

Smartphones, labour-intensive goods, and key industrial exports see massive contraction after US raises duties to 50%

November 29, 2025

US tariffs hit Indian exports hard

India’s exports to its largest foreign market, the US, have suffered a sharp reversal due to aggressive tariff hikes, think tank GTRI said in a report on Saturday. Between May and October 2025, shipments fell 28.5 percent, from USD 8.83 billion to USD 6.31 billion. The decline followed a rapid escalation in US duties that began at 10 percent on April 2, rose to 25 percent on August 7, and reached 50 percent by late August, making Indian goods among the most heavily taxed of any US trading partner, said the report.

In comparison, China faced tariffs of about 30 percent, while Japan dealt with only 15 percent. Tariff-exempt items such as smartphones, pharmaceuticals, and petroleum products accounted for 40.3 percent of October exports but still fell 25.8 percent, from USD 3.42 billion in May to USD 2.54 billion in October — a contraction of USD 881 million, the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said.

The GTRI report added that products facing uniform global tariffs — mainly iron, steel, aluminum, copper, and auto parts — formed just 7.6 per cent of shipments in October. Exports in this category fell 23.8 percent between May and October, sliding from USD 629 million in May to USD 480 million in October, or about USD 149 million, it said.

The steepest decline occurred in labour-intensive products where India alone faced 50 percent tariffs. These goods, which represented 52.1 percent of October exports, collapsed 31.2 percent, falling from USD 4.78 billion to USD 3.29 billion — nearly USD 1.5 billion erased in just five months, it said. “Smartphones, India’s single biggest product line to the US, suffered a 36 per cent decline, sliding from USD 2.29 billion in May to USD 1.50 billion in October — a loss of almost USD 790 million,” GTRI Founder Ajay Srivastava said.

Monthly exports fell consistently from USD 2 billion in June to USD 1.52 billion in July, crashed to USD 964.8 million in August, eased further to USD 884.6 million in September, and finally recovered to USD 1.5 billion in October, he said in New Delhi. Pharmaceutical exports, he said, also dipped marginally by 1.6 percent, from USD 745.6 million to USD 733.6 million.

Similarly, he said petroleum product shipments declined 15.5 percent, falling from USD 291 million in May to USD 246 million in October. Further, the report said that labour-intensive sectors such as gems and jewellery, textiles, garments, chemicals, and seafood recorded a dip in the outbound shipments. Chemical exports tumbled 38 percent, declining from USD 537 million to USD 333 million.

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