Cost and supply chain analysis
The numbers already show a decisive shift. According to TexPro data, India**;s imports of US cotton (HS **** and ****) reached $***.* million in calendar ****. The trajectory matters more than the total: quarterly value rose from $**.* million in Q* **** to $***.* million in Q* ****; a jump of ***.* per cent, more than doubling in a year. Q* alone grew **.* per cent over Q*.
The reverse flow is negligible: the US imported just $**,*** of Indian cotton in all of ****, meaning India bought roughly *,*** times more US cotton by value than the US bought from India. This is a one-way raw-cotton pipeline. Two policy levers drove this.
First, India removed its ** per cent cotton import duty (Basic Customs Duty plus Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess) on August **, ****, then extended the exemption to December **, ****. USDA Foreign Agricultural Service reported US cotton shipments to India up *** per cent year-to-date (January–June ****), valued at $*** million.
