The Press Trust of India reported that the global recession has lead to shuffling of USA’s import basket from India. The share of gems and jewellery, carpets and apparels dropped while pharmaceuticals and iron and steel imports strengthened in the American market in 2008.

On a decrease in US' total imports from India, gems and jewellery saw its contribution dip from 25.73 per cent in 2007 to 21.7 per cent in 2008 while carpets' share fell to 2.20 per cent last year from 2.56 per cent the previous year and apparels to 7 per cent in 2008 from 7.9 per cent in 2007, according to the US commerce department estimates.

"Due to the global slowdown, demand was low in the US...We hope that sales will pick-up in this fiscal," Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council Chairman Basant Mehta said.

America's total imports from India stood at USD 25.76 billion in 2008 against USD 24.073 billion in 2007, falling 6.5 per cent, according to the data.