US Revises Tariff On India Downwards From 27 Pc To 26 Pc

The United States has revised downwards the import duties to be imposed on India from 27 per cent to 26 per cent, according to a White House document. These duties will come into force from April 9. While announcing the reciprocal tariffs against different countries on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump held up a chart that showed the tariffs that countries such as India, China, the UK, and the European Union will now have to pay.

The chart indicated that India charged 52 per cent tariffs, including currency manipulation and trade barriers, and America would now charge India a discounted reciprocal tariff of 26 per cent. Earlier, the White House documents showed a 27 per cent duty on India. However, as per the latest updates, it has been revised downwards to 26 per cent. When asked, industry experts said one per cent would not have much of an impact. From 2021-22 to 2023-24, the US was India's largest trading partner.

The US accounts for about 18 per cent of India's total goods exports, 6.22 per cent in imports, and 10.73 per cent in bilateral trade. With America, India had a trade surplus (the difference between imports and exports) of USD 35.32 billion in goods in 2023-24.

This was USD 27.7 billion in 2022-23, USD 32.85 billion in 2021-22, USD 22.73 billion in 2020-21, and USD 17.26 billion in 2019-20. In 2024, India's main exports to the US included drug formulations and biologicals (USD 8.1 billion), telecom instruments (USD 6.5 billion), precious and semi-precious stones (USD 5.3 billion), petroleum products (USD 4.1 billion), gold and other precious metal jewellery (USD 3.2 billion), ready-made garments of cotton, including accessories (USD 2.8 billion), and products of iron and steel (USD 2.7 billion).

Imports included crude oil (USD 4.5 billion), petroleum products (USD 3.6 billion), coal, coke (USD 3.4 billion), cut and polished diamonds (USD 2.6 billion), electric machinery (USD 1.4 billion), aircraft, spacecraft and parts (USD 1.3 billion), and gold (USD 1.3 billion). India was among about 60 other countries against which the US has announced these high taxes to cut their trade deficit and boost manufacturing. The US has claimed that American goods face 52 per cent duty in the Indian market.

The 26 per cent duty is over and above the existing duty being faced by Indian goods in the US. On Thursday morning, government officials had also confirmed that the additional duty was 27 per cent. Besides India, the duty has been revised by 100 basis points for over a dozen other countries including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Cameroon, Falkland Island, Malawi and Myanmar.

(PTI)