Trump prices: The Indian government would explore a plan to negotiate the suspension of 26% tariffs on Indian products until a bilateral trade agreement between countries is finalized. The BTA should be finalized in the fall of 2025. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Minister of External Affairs Jaishankar discussed reciprocal prices as well as the importance of concluding the BTA at the start.
According to a Mint report, India is preparing to increase official and backchannel talks with the United States. He cited a source, which said that the government explores all possible avenues to mitigate potential losses to the country’s exports.
“India has an additional advantage, because it is the only country that has had the possibility of continuing a bilateral trade agreement with the United States,” said a source on the financial daily.
India could also negotiate temporary relief for a selected list of highly efficient export categories, including textiles, engineering goods and electronic products.
Impact of Trump’s prices
India has positioned its advantageously exporters compared to competitors faced with higher import duties in America, sources told the PTI news agency. They also pointed out that sectors like Marine must explore new markets such as the European Union to stimulate shipments.
India has systematically protected its dairy sector in all free trade agreements and plans to continue these guarantees. Sources have noted that any American taxation of higher prices for pharmaceutical products would have a minimum impact on India. “India has become a winner in the reciprocal prices imposed by the United States. India has the first advantage of a mover because it is negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with America,” said a source.
In a trade agreement, two countries generally reduce or eliminate import duties on most negotiated goods. In this scenario, the two nations could consider reducing taxes for each other. While the United States has imposed 26%additional import duties to India, competitors like Vietnam face 46%, Bangladesh 37%, in China 34%, in Indonesia 32%and in Thailand at 36%.
The reports indicate that US President Donald Trump plans to soon announce prices on pharmaceutical and semiconductors, with unprecedented measures on pharmaceutical imports. However, the United States has exempted these sectors from some others in office in previous announcements. The Ministry of Commerce is in dialogue with exporters to respond to concerns, because many believe that their sectors will not be affected significantly due to higher tasks on competitors.
