India seeking full exemption from additional 26% tariff in interim trade agreement with US

22 May 2025 Evaluate

India and the US are likely to announce an interim trade agreement before July 8, with the country seeking full exemption from the additional 26 per cent tariff on domestic goods. The US on April 2 imposed an additional 26 per cent reciprocal tariff on Indian goods, but suspended it for 90 days till July 9. However, the 10 per cent baseline tariff imposed by America remains in place. India’s endeavour to protect its sensitive sectors may entail some quota or minimum import price (MIP). Such sectors include agri goods and dairy. Recently, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal was in Washington to give an impetus to the trade talks. He held meetings with US Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

At present, the Trump administration requires approval from the US Congress to bring tariffs below the MFN (most favoured nation) rates. But the administration has the authority to remove the reciprocal tariffs imposed on a number of countries, including India. India may look at certain commitments from the US on the duty concessions for its labour-intensive sector in the first tranche of the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA). Both countries have fixed a deadline to conclude the first phase of the pact by fall (September-October) of this year to more than double bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.

To boost bilateral trade, India is seeking duty concessions for labour-intensive sectors like textiles, gems and jewellery, leather goods, garments, plastics, chemicals, shrimp, oil seeds, chemicals, grapes, and bananas in the proposed pact with America. On the other hand, the US wants duty concessions in sectors like certain industrial goods, automobiles (electric vehicles in particular), wines, petrochemical products, dairy, agriculture items such as apples, tree nuts and GM (genetically modified) crops. While the import of GM crops from the US continues to remain a non-starter due to regulatory norms in India, New Delhi is open to import non-GM products like Alpha alpha hay (a kind of cattle feed).

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