India awaits clarity on Trump’s tariffs; officials say New Delhi will react after US makes announcement

New Delhi: India will suitably react to the US’ reciprocal tariffs which are likely to kick in from next week even as there is still a lot of uncertainty around the issue, officials said. US president Donald Trump has indicated that there will not be too many exceptions to his reciprocal tariff announcement on April 2.

“We don’t know what will happen. There is a bit of uncertainty around that. Whether tariffs will be announced or imposed on us, we will see what comes and adequately react,” said an official.

Another official said the Indian industry is worried about the US’ plan and wants early conclusion of the bilateral trade agreement.

“Industry is paranoid. Lot of jobs are at stake. It is demanding to do it (BTA) as fast as possible otherwise they will suffer from the US reciprocal tariffs,” the official said, adding that the industry wants to avert or delay tariffs. In the scenario the tariffs are imposed as threatened, industry wants protection from the impact and has written to the government regarding the same, according to the official.

The government informed Parliament that after the February Budget, India’s simple average industrial tariff has reduced to 10.66%.

New Delhi has already lowered import duties for many products which it mainly sources from the US even as official talks on the proposed BTA started Wednesday.

“BTA is an area where the two sides can balance their trade aspiration but the asks are not frozen yet,” the official added.

The second official said the talks for the BTA are progressing well.

Certain industries such as synthetic textiles and auto components see this as an opportunity to diversify their supply chains.