New Delhi: The Modi government is “carefully examining the implications” of the Donald Trump administration’s levying a 27% reciprocal tariff on India and is in touch with Washington regarding negotiations for a planned bilateral trade deal, it said.In a statement issued on Thursday (April 3) afternoon, the Union commerce and industry ministry also said that the commerce department was speaking with “all stakeholders”, including domestic industry and exporters, about their assessment of Washington’s move.“The department is also studying the opportunities that may arise due to this new development in the US trade policy,” it added.Early on Thursday in Indian time, Trump announced a 26% tariff on India, saying that New Delhi has been “very, very tough” with the US in terms of the tariffs it imposes on American goods.“The prime minister just left and he’s a great friend of mine, but I said, ‘You’re a friend of mine, but you’re not treating us right’. They charged us 52%. You have to understand we charge them almost nothing for years and years and decades,” he said at the White House’s Rose Garden.Washington’s official communique issued after Trump’s announcement said the reciprocal tariff levied on India will be 27%. This is the figure the Union commerce ministry cited in its press release.The 27% reciprocal tariff, which applies to countries that the US said it “has the largest trade deficits” with, is scheduled to kick in on April 9. Before that, a baseline 10% tariff that applies to “all countries” will be levied starting April 5.Reciprocal tariffs on India are lower than those on key Asian exporters China (34%), Vietnam (46%), Thailand (37%), Taiwan (32%) and Indonesia (32%).This could work to India’s advantage “if reforms are carried out for enabling scale production, domestic value addition and improving competitiveness”, the Global Trade Research Initiative said.Trump’s levy comes as New Delhi and Washington engage in talks over a trade deal announced during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Washington in February.Addressing the trade negotiations, the commerce ministry said it “remain[s] in touch with the Trump administration on these issues and expect[s] to take them forward in the coming days”.It also comes even as the Indian government lowered tariffs or duties on certain goods in anticipation of Trump’s promised reciprocal action.But US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick had earlier said at an Indian media event that it was time for New Delhi to “do something big, something grand, something that connects India and the US together but does it on a broad scale, not product by product, but rather the whole thing”.
