India has agreed to cut tariffs on US cars to avoid a trade war, The Hindustan Times reports.
During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s summit with US President Donald Trump, the Indian side expressed its willingness to go for deep tariff cuts, including on some agricultural goods, to help boost trade between the countries to $500 billion by 2030.
New Delhi is preparing to cut tariffs on premium motorcycles from 110 percent to 100 percent and on US bourbon from 50 percent to 30 percent, and set zero tariffs on certain imports of lentils and peas.
“India is charging us huge tariffs, just huge. You can’t sell anything in India. <…> But now they want to significantly reduce the tariffs,” US President Donald Trump said
Earlier, the Indian side announced a large-scale reduction in imports of automobiles, chemicals, electronics, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment for multi-sector bilateral trade with the US to be less vulnerable in a potential trade war. As a lever, India highlighted areas where the US has a trade surplus with significant exports to Asia’s third-largest economy.
White House Chief Donald Trump called the new tariffs on imported goods, which will come into effect on April 2, fair, since countries such as China, Brazil, India, Mexico, Canada and the EU have been levying tariffs on American goods for decades.