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 bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.
New Delhi is set to cut duties on premium motorcycles to 100 percent from 110 percent and on US bourbon from 50 percent to 30 percent, while also imposing zero tariffs on certain volumes of lentils and peas.
Earlier, the Indian side had pledged to massively reduce imports of automobiles, chemicals, electronics, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment for its multi-sector bilateral trade with the US to be less vulnerable in a potential trade war. As leverage, India singled out 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 force 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.