New Delhi, March 30 (AFP) – India’s protectionist policies and its trade surplus with the United States leave it open to potential retaliatory tariffs from the Trump administration.
Credit rating agency India Ratings and Research projects that the proposed tariffs could see the country’s exports to the United States decline by up to $7.3 billion in the next fiscal year.
India and the United States have agreed to finalise part of a bilateral trade deal by this year but neither side gave indications of any tariff exemptions for the world’s most populous nation.
Both countries held trade talks in New Delhi this week days out from the start of US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal trade tariff regime, which includes punitive import levies against India, from April 2.
India’s protectionist policies and its trade surplus with the United States leave it open to potential retaliatory tariffs from the Trump administration.
Officials from both sides had “broadly come to an understanding on the next steps towards a mutually beneficial, multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), with the goal to finalize its first tranche by fall 2025,” India’s commerce ministry said in a statement late Saturday.
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