Reacting to US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose an additional 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods over New Delhi’s continued oil trade with Russia, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said the move could severely impact India’s exports to the American market.
“I don't think that's particularly good news for us, and that takes our total tariffs to 50 per cent. Then that's going to make our goods unaffordable to a lot of people in America,” Tharoor told reporters.
Highlighting how India’s competitors benefit from lower tariff regimes, he added, “In particular, when you're looking at these percentages, you have to compare them with the tariffs being levied on some of our competitors. I'm afraid that if you look at people like Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, even Bangladesh and Pakistan have lower tariffs than us. Then ultimately, people will not be buying goods from us in America if they can buy them cheaper elsewhere. So that's not very good for our exports to America.”
Tharoor said India must now urgently diversify its export markets. “This means we need to very seriously diversify to other countries and other markets that may be interested in what we have to offer. We now have an FTA with the UK. We are talking to the EU. There are many countries in which hopefully we would be able to, but in the short term, it is definitely a blow,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}Tharoor said India must now urgently diversify its export markets. “This means we need to very seriously diversify to other countries and other markets that may be interested in what we have to offer. We now have an FTA with the UK. We are talking to the EU. There are many countries in which hopefully we would be able to, but in the short term, it is definitely a blow,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing an additional tariff on Indian goods less than 14 hours before the initial duties were set to take effect.
With the new order, the total tariff, excluding a small exemption list, will now stand at 50 per cent. The initial tariff will be enforced from August 7, while the additional 25 per cent levy will come into effect 21 days later.