U.S. revises tariff on India downwards from 27% to 26%

File photo of U.S President Donald Trump.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The United States has revised downwards the import duties to be imposed on India from 27% to 26%, 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, he held up a chart that showed the tariffs that countries such as India, China, the U.K., and the European Union will now have to pay.

The chart indicated that India charged 52% tariffs, including currency manipulation and trade barriers, and America would now charge India a discounted reciprocal tariff of 26%.

Earlier, the White House documents showed a 27% duty on India. However, as per the latest updates, it has been revised downwards to 26%.

When asked, industry experts said one per cent would not have much of an impact.

From 2021-22 to 2023-24, the U.S. was India’s largest trading partner. The U.S. accounts for about 18% of India’s total goods exports, 6.22% in imports, and 10.73% in bilateral trade.

With America, India had a trade surplus (the difference between imports and exports) of $35.32 billion in goods in 2023-24. This was $27.7 billion in 2022-23, $32.85 billion in 2021-22, $22.73 billion in 2020-21, and $17.26 billion in 2019-20.

In 2024, India’s main exports to the US included drug formulations and biologicals ($8.1 billion), telecom instruments ($6.5 billion), precious and semi-precious stones ($5.3 billion), petroleum products ($4.1 billion), gold and other precious metal jewellery ($3.2 billion), ready-made garments of cotton, including accessories ($2.8 billion), and products of iron and steel ($2.7 billion).

Imports included crude oil ($4.5 billion), petroleum products ($3.6 billion), coal, coke ($3.4 billion), cut and polished diamonds ($2.6 billion), electric machinery ($1.4 billion), aircraft, spacecraft and parts ($1.3 billion), and gold ($1.3 billion).