u/EximNews24

The India-EU deal eliminates duties on 99.5% of Indian exports to Europe, and the US tariff dropped from 50% to 18% earlier this year. On paper this should be massive for Indian exporters.

But from what I'm seeing, the benefits seem to be flowing mostly to large integrated players — textiles, pharma, auto parts — who already had established EU/US buyer relationships and could move quickly.

For smaller or first-time exporters without existing buyer pipelines, has anything actually changed on the ground? Are buyers offering better prices, or are freight costs and compliance requirements eating up whatever margin the tariff cut created?

Curious what people here are actually experiencing.

Official trade data shows India's exports grew 13.4% YoY to $43.7B in April 2026. Most of the growth seems concentrated in petroleum, telecom, and pharma. Curious if merchant exporters and smaller businesses here are actually feeling any difference — more inquiries, better pricing, new buyers? Or is the headline number not translating to ground reality for most of us?

Trying to make sense of this for my own shipments and it's genuinely confusing. Rate dropped to \~10% in June after a Supreme Court ruling, but there's apparently still a separate legal fight over whether that 10% itself is valid — and the broader India-US FTA still isn't finalized (Goyal said this week it won't kick in until India gets a tariff edge over Vietnam/Bangladesh/etc). Anyone actually shipping to the US right now — what rate is showing up on your paperwork? Is this actually settled in practice even if it's messy on paper?

Trying to make sense of this for my own shipments and it's genuinely confusing. Rate dropped to ~10% in June after a Supreme Court ruling, but there's apparently still a separate legal fight over whether that 10% itself is valid — and the broader India-US FTA still isn't finalized (Goyal said this week it won't kick in until India gets a tariff edge over Vietnam/Bangladesh/etc). Anyone actually shipping to the US right now — what rate is showing up on your paperwork? Is this actually settled in practice even if it's messy on paper?

Came across data showing India is consistently one of the EU's most flagged origin countries for pesticide residue issues in food exports — especially spices, rice, and fruits/vegetables. Curious if this is just a stat or something people here have actually been hit by.

Has it happened to you? What product, and what was the actual fallout — destroyed shipment, blacklist, just a warning?

Source for the data point, if anyone wants to dig in: food.ec.europa.eu/RASFF (EU's official Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed database)

I've had a few "buyers" and "agents" reach out lately who turned out to be vague at best — no company name, no proof, just promises. Made me realize I don't actually have a solid way to verify someone before shipping. How do you all check if a buyer is genuine before you commit to an order?

Asking because I've seen a lot of people get stuck at the same points. Drop your experience below.

This is the hardest part for most new exporters. Did you use Alibaba, trade fairs, referrals or something else? Would love to hear real stories.

Curious to hear real experiences from exporters here.

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What went wrong in your first shipment and what would you tell someone starting out today?

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Drop your experience below — could really help a lot of people reading this.