US President Donald Trump and Indian PM Narendra Modi
New Delhi: Hours after the United States’ president, Donald Trump, announced 27 per cent “discounted reciprocal tariff”, India on Thursday said that it was carefully examining and also studying the opportunities that may arise due to the new development in the US trade policy.
In a statement, the commerce ministry said: “The Department of Commerce is carefully examining the implications of the various measures/announcements made by the president of the USA. Keeping in view the vision of Viksit Bharat, the department is engaged with all stakeholders, including Indian industry and exporters, taking feedback of their assessment of the tariffs and assessing the situation.” “The department is also studying the opportunities that may arise due to this new development in the US trade policy,” it further said.
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On April 2, the US president issued an executive order on reciprocal tariffs imposing additional ad valorem duties ranging from 10 per cent to 50 per cent on imports from all trading partners, including India and China.
The baseline duty of 10 per cent will be effective from April 5 and the remaining country specific additional ad valorem duty will be effective from April 9.
The additional duty on India as per the Annex I of the executive order is 27 per cent.
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On February 13, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, and Trump had announced “Mission 500” – aiming to more than double the bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.
In this regard, the ministry said that the discussions are ongoing between Indian and US trade teams for the expeditious conclusion of a mutually beneficial, multi-sectoral bilateral trade agreement.
These cover a wide range of issues of mutual interest including deepening supply chain integration. The ongoing talks are focused on enabling both nations to grow trade, investments and technology transfers.
“We remain in touch with the Trump Administration on these issues and expect to take them forward in the coming days,” the commerce ministry said.
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“India values its comprehensive global strategic partnership with the United States and is committed to working closely with the US to implement the India-US ‘Catalysing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology’ (COMPACT) for the 21st century to ensure that our trade ties remain a pillar of mutual prosperity and drive transformative change for the benefit of the people of India and the US,” the ministry further added.
