India has managed to hold its ground and, in several cases, expand its footprint in the United States market, despite the imposition of higher American tariffs. Electronics and a range of consumer goods have helped prevent a broader trade slump.
A Moneycontrol analysis shows that close to 60 percent of products imported by the US from India not only recorded higher trade volumes after the tariffs came into effect in August, but also gained share in total US imports over the past 10 months. The pattern suggests that tariff pressure has played out unevenly across categories, with several Indian exports either insulated from the full impact or benefiting from shifts in global supply chains away from competing countries.
Electronics stand out as the clearest area of resilience and expansion. Laptop exports from India to the US surged dramatically after the tariff action. In the two months following the imposition of duties, US laptop imports from India jumped nearly 5000 percent compared with the same period a year earlier. Over the first ten months of the year, imports were up about 1700 percent, while India’s share in total US laptop imports rose by 0.3 percentage points. The scale and speed of the increase highlight how quickly Indian manufacturers have been able to ramp up shipments in response to changing trade conditions.
Smartphones tell a similar story. Largely shielded from the tariff measures, the category has seen sustained momentum. During September and October, US smartphone imports from India rose 343 percent year-on-year. For the year so far, imports were up 215 percent, pushing India’s share in US smartphone imports to around 36 percent. The gains underline India’s growing role as a manufacturing base for global handset makers supplying the American market.
Some of the traditional labour-intensive exports have also remained surprisingly robust. India’s dominance in carpets made from wool and fine animal hair strengthened further, with its share in US imports rising to about 80 percent from 74 percent a year earlier, even as trade volumes in the immediate post-tariff period grew by 4 percent. Toilet and kitchen linen exports rose 7 percent, with India’s share climbing to 44 percent from 41 percent, indicating that price competitiveness and established supply relationships have helped cushion the tariff shock.
Beyond defending existing markets, India has also pushed into new niches. Soybean oilcake exports stand out as an extreme example. Despite facing additional levies of 50 percent, US imports from India during September and October surged by nearly 49,500 percent compared with the same period last year. This translated into India’s share of US soyabean oilcake imports rising to 8.6 percent, from just 2.3 percent earlier, pointing to opportunistic gains even in tariff-hit categories.
Taken together, the data suggest that while higher US tariffs posed a clear risk to bilateral trade, India has so far been able to offset much of the pressure. Rapid scaling up in electronics, steady performance in labour-intensive goods, and selective entry into new product segments have helped keep exports resilient. The broader takeaway is that India’s export basket to the US appears to be both deepening and diversifying, even as global trade becomes more protectionist.