India is open to chopping tariffs on greater than half of U.S. imports value $23 billion in the primary part of a commerce deal the 2 nations are negotiating, two authorities sources with data of the matter stated, the most important cut in years, geared toward heading off reciprocal tariffs.
Mitigate tariff impression
The South Asian nation desires to mitigate the impression of U.S. President Donald Trump’s reciprocal worldwide tariffs set to take impact from April 2, a risk that has disrupted markets and despatched policymakers scrambling, even amongst Western allies.
In an inner evaluation, New Delhi estimated such reciprocal tariffs would hit 87% of its whole exports to the U.S. value $66 billion, two authorities sources with data of the matter instructed Reuters.
Under the deal, India is open to lowering tariffs on 55% of U.S. items it imports that at the moment are topic to tariffs starting from 5% to 30%, stated each sources, who sought anonymity as they weren’t authorised to converse to the media.
In this class of items, India is prepared to “substantially” decrease tariffs and even scrap some solely, on imported items value greater than $23 billion from the U.S. one of the sources stated.
India’s Trade Ministry, the PMO and a authorities spokesperson didn’t reply to mail searching for feedback.
Overall the U.S. trade-weighted common tariff has been about 2.2%, information from the World Trade Organization exhibits, in contrast with India’s 12%. The United States has a commerce deficit of $45.6 billion with India.
During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s U.S. go to in February 2025, the 2 nations agreed to begin talks in direction of clinching an early commerce deal and resolving their standoff on tariffs.
New Delhi desires to strike a deal earlier than the reciprocal tariffs are introduced and Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch will lead a delegation of officers from United States for commerce talks from Tuesday (March 25, 2025).
India can be contemplating wider tariff reform to decrease limitations uniformly, however such discussions are in early phases and may not determine instantly in talks with the United States, stated one of the officers.
Published – March 26, 2025 04:53 am IST
