This article covers the economic relationship between India and the United States: trade in goods and services, investment in both directions, the negotiations towards a bilateral trade agreement, the dialogues that manage economic ties, energy trade and the supply of generic medicines. It relies on the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) bilateral brief of February 2026.

Trade

According to the MEA brief of February 2026, the US is the largest trading partner of India, with overall bilateral trade in goods and services of $210.1 billion for calendar year 2024. The brief cites US Census data.

The brief's table, in millions of US$ and presented from the US side, gives these figures for 2024:

  • US goods exports to India: 41,753
  • US goods imports from India: 87,416
  • US services exports to India: 40,264
  • US services imports from India: 40,749
  • merchandise total: 129,169
  • services total: 81,013
  • total trade: 210,182

Total trade in earlier years, from the same table, was 120,878 in 2020, 159,099 in 2021, 191,436 in 2022 and 194,290 in 2023.

Investment

During FY 2024-25, the US was the third largest source of FDI into India, with inflows of USD 5.45 billion, accounting for almost 11% of total FDI equity inflows. In FY 2025-26 (April-September), the US became the second largest source of FDI in India, with USD 6.6 billion (19% of total FDI).

From April 2000 to September 2025, India received USD 77.27 billion in cumulative FDI inflow from the US, which the brief gives as 10% of total FDI inflow to India.

Indian companies are also investing in the US. According to a CII study released in April 2023, Indian companies invested over $40 billion in the US and created over 425,000 direct jobs.

The US-India Green Transition Fund was announced during the Prime Minister's visit to the US in June 2023 and formalised during the leaders' meeting on the sidelines of India's G20 Leaders' Forum in Sept, 2023. Its objective is to help lower the cost of capital and attract international private finance at scale for greenfield renewable energy, battery storage and emerging green technology projects in India. India's National Investment and Infrastructure Fund and the U.S. Development Finance Corporation exchanged letters of interest to each provide up to US$500 million to anchor it. As of the brief, the terms and conditions of the fund were under discussion at USDFC.

Towards a trade agreement

The Terms of Reference for a bilateral trade agreement were announced during the US Vice President's visit to India in April 2025, described in the relations article. The steps that followed, as recorded in the brief, were:

  • Commerce and Industry Minister Shri Piyush Goyal visited Washington D.C. on March 3-6, 2025, and again in May 2025.
  • A team of officials from the office of the United States Trade Representative visited India on 16th September 2025.
  • A delegation led by Shri Piyush Goyal visited the United States for meetings on 22nd September 2025, with a view to early conclusion of a Trade Agreement.
  • A US delegation led by the Deputy USTR visited India in December 2025 to take forward the BTA discussions.
  • On February 2, 2026, during a conversation between the two leaders, the US announced a reduction of the tariff on Indian products to 18%.
  • On 6 February 2026, India and the United States reached a framework for an Interim Agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade (Interim Agreement).

As of the brief, both sides were working towards concluding a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) consistent with the roadmap agreed in the Terms of Reference. After the brief, on 17 June 2026, Prime Minister Modi and President Trump noted significant progress in negotiations towards an interim Bilateral Trade Agreement and instructed officials to work towards an agreement at the earliest.

Dialogue mechanisms

  • India-US Trade Policy Forum (TPF): established in 2005, it discusses market access and trade related matters. The 14th TPF was held in New Delhi on January 12, 2024, led by the Commerce and Industry Minister and the USTR.
  • India-US Commercial Dialogue: co-chaired by the Commerce and Industry Minister and the US Secretary of Commerce, it covers standards, ease of doing business, travel and tourism and other commercial issues. The fifth was held in New Delhi on 10 March 2023 and the sixth in Washington DC on 03 October 2024, when both sides signed an MoU to "Expand and Diversify Critical Mineral Supply Chains".
  • India-US CEO Forum: established in 2005, it meets on the sidelines of the Commercial Dialogue and submits recommendations to it. It met on 02 October 2024 in Washington DC.
  • Joint Working Group on Information and Communications Technology: established in 2005. The Secretary, MeitY, co-led its most recent meeting with US Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy Ambassador Steve Lang on 17 October 2024 in New Delhi.
  • India-US Economic and Financial Partnership Dialogue (EFP): co-led by the Finance Minister and the US Secretary of the Treasury. The 9th ministerial EFP Dialogue was held in November 2022 in New Delhi, and the 11th Financial and Regulatory Dialogue in March 2023 in Gandhinagar.

Indo-Pacific Economic Framework

India joined the launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) in May 2022 along with 13 partner countries. It joined three of the four pillars: supply chains (2), fair economy (4) and clean economy (3). The text of Pillar 2 on supply chain resilience was finalised in May 2023 and came into force in February 2024.

IPEF Ministerial Meetings were held in March 2024 and June 2024, and an IPEF Clean Economy Investor Forum was held on 6 June 2024 in Singapore. India signed Pillar-3, Pillar-4 and the Overarching Agreement ahead of the Prime Minister's visit to the US in September 2024.

Energy trade

The brief describes the United States as India's sixth largest energy trade partner. During FY 2024-25, India's hydrocarbon imports from the US stood at around USD 10.27 billion, an increase of 31% on FY 2023-24, when they were USD 7.83 billion. In the first 3 quarters of FY 2025-26, they reached USD 10.85 billion.

Pharmaceuticals

According to the brief, 47% of all generic prescriptions filled in the US in 2022 were supplied by Indian companies: 1.8 billion out of 6.7 billion prescriptions. Generic drugs saved $408 billion in 2022, of which the contribution of Indian companies was $219 billion. Indian companies contributed 46% of the $2.9Tn in generic savings to the US healthcare system over the last decade, and are estimated to provide $1.3 trillion in savings over the next 5 years.

India has the highest number of USFDA-compliant companies with plants outside the USA, and more than 858 US FDA-approved plants. About eight of the 20 global generic companies are from India, and Indian pharmaceutical companies have manufacturing units in about 14 locations in the US.

Space trade mission

The U.S. Department of Commerce organised a Space Trade Mission to Bengaluru and New Delhi on 9-13 February 2026, in which 23 executives from 14 American space companies took part. As part of it, the U.S. Consulate General, Chennai hosted the U.S.-India Space Business Forum in Bengaluru on 10-11 February 2026, which convened more than 200 government and industry participants.