As US president Donald Trump on April 2 issued an Executive Order on Reciprocal Tariffs imposing additional ad-valorem duties ranging from 10% to 50% on imports from all trading partners, India said it was “carefully examining the implications” of the announcement.

After Trump’s new announcement, the baseline duty of 10% will be effective from April 5 and the remaining country specific additional ad-valorem duty will be effective from April 9. The additional duty on India as per the Annex I of the Executive Order is 27%.  

The Department of Commerce, in a media statement on Thursday, said it was “carefully examining the implications of the various measures / announcements made by the President of the USA”.

“Keeping in view the vision of Viksit Bharat, the Department is engaged with all stakeholders, including Indian industry and exporters, taking feedback of their assessment of the tariffs and assessing the situation. The Department is also studying the opportunities that may arise due to this new development in the US trade policy,” the statement said.

It added that prime minister Narendra Modi and president Donald Trump had announced on February 13 a ‘Mission 500’ – aiming to more than double the bilateral trade to US $500 billion by 2030. Accordingly, discussions were going on between Indian and US trade teams for the expeditious conclusion of a mutually beneficial, multi-sectoral Bilateral Trade Agreement. These cover a wide range of issues of mutual interest including deepening supply chain integration. “The ongoing talks are focused on enabling both nations to grow trade, investments and technology transfers. We remain in touch with the Trump Administration on these issues and expect to take them forward in the coming days.”

India said it values its Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership with the US and is committed to working closely with the US to implement the India-US ‘Catalysing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology’ (COMPACT) for the 21st century to ensure that our trade ties remain a pillar of mutual prosperity and drive transformative change for the benefit of the people of India and the US.