NEW DELHI: India has joined China and the European Union in retaliating to the tariff hikes announced by the Trump administration.
In a notification on Thursday, the Finance Ministry announced higher tariff on 29 products imported from the US. Some of the new Indian rates will take effect immediately while the others will kick off from August 4, according to the notification by the Department of Revenue.
The move is in retaliation to the duty hike announced by the US on certain steel and aluminum products, which could have tariff implication of $241 million on India.
The ministry also announced fresh levy on many farm products such as apple, almond, chickpea, lentil, walnut and artemia besides some grades of iron and steel products, mainly imported from the US.
A week ago, India had submitted to WTO a revised list of 30 items on which customs duties were to be raised by 50 per cent. Of the 30 items, it excluded motorbikes above 800cc.
According to the notification, the import duty on chickpea and gram has been increased to 60 per cent, the duty on lentils has been hiked to 30 per cent.
The latest move by New Delhi is set to intensify global trade war triggered by US President Donald Trump on March 9 when he imposed heavy tariffs on imported steel and aluminium items. According to India, the duty imposed by the US has affected steel exports by $198.6 million and aluminium shipments by $42.4 million.
Last month, India had dragged the US to the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement mechanism over the imposition of import duties on steel and aluminium.
Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian had also warned the global tariff war might have adverse impact on India’s growth if the external economic condition worsened.
No additional duty on Harley-Davidson
Last week, India had informed WTO of a revised list of 30 import items for retaliatory tariffs. In the revised list, though, India has brought down the proposed maximum additional duties from 100 per cent (on walnuts) to 50 per cent (on Harley-Davidson).