New Delhi, April 1 || While both India and the US are deeply interconnected through trade, investment, and strategic agreements, recent US tariff measures have introduced new complexities, as per a report.
The trade relationship between the United States and India, valued at $129.20 billion in 2024, is at a critical juncture as new US trade policies aim to introduce tariff realignments.
India has already kicked off some tariff adjustments specific to the US, beginning with the Budget 2025. It has relaxed tariffs for various goods on the US export list, such as motor bikes from 50 per cent to 40 per cent, and bourbon whiskey from 150 per cent to 100 per cent.
Simultaneously, both countries have started working towards negotiating the bilateral trade agreement (BTA) aimed at reaching a deal before the end of 2025.
According to a Price Waterhouse (PwC) report, a key task for India to balance in this regard would be the considerable difference in the applied tariffs between the two nations - while India imposes an average tariff of 17 per cent, the U.S. maintains a much lower average of 3.3 per cent. It is important to mention that this gap is even wider in agriculture, where India’s simple average tariff is 39 per cent, compared to five per cent in the U.S.
The report states that a new 25 per cent tariff on almost all steel and aluminum imports into the US has been imposed. This directly impacts Indian steel manufacturers exporting to the U.S.