NEW DELHI: With US President Donald Trump reiterating his threat to impose reciprocal tariffs from April 2, India on Friday said the two countries are engaged in negotiations to build a framework to address issues such as levies and market access.
The response from the external affairs ministry came two days after Trump said he planned to go ahead with reciprocal tariffs on India next month, a move that could hit Indian exports. External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the two sides are engaged in a conversation and “hopefully will come to some sort of understanding”.
The Indian side is engaging the US administration at various levels to finalise a mutually beneficial multi-sector trade deal, Jaiswal told a weekly media briefing. He didn’t respond directly to queries on whether India expects a waiver on the reciprocal tariffs expected to kick in on April 2.
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“India and the US are in the process of taking bilateral trade negotiations forward. The two governments are actively working to build a framework for the BTA [bilateral trade agreement], which would aim to expand trade, enhance market access, reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers, and deepen supply chain integration,” Jaiswal said.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to Washington in February for talks with Trump, the two countries announced they would negotiate the first tranche of a bilateral trade agreement by the fall of 2025. Despite the ongoing negotiations, Trump has railed against India’s tariff structure and said several times he intends to go ahead with the reciprocal tariffs.
Trump fired the latest salvo in an interview with Breitbart News on Wednesday, describing India as a country with some of the highest tariffs.
“I have a very good relationship with India, but the only problem I have with India is that they are one of the highest tariffing nations in the world. I believe they are probably going to be lowering those tariffs substantially, but on April 2, we will be charging them the same tariffs they charge us,” he said.
Trump’s tariff threats have stoked fears of a global trade war, with many countries unveiling counter-measures to cope with the situation.
When Jaiswal was pressed whether India expects some concessions from the US, he said: “We will have to wait for these talks to come to a closure.”
He said that within the scope of the proposed trade agreement, there is an understanding that both countries will aim to expand trade, enhance market access and reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers.
Meanwhile, minister of state for commerce and industry Jitin Prasada informed Parliament on Friday that the Indian government is engaged with the US administration to “achieve enhancement and broadening of bilateral trade ties in a mutually beneficial and fair manner”.
In addition to negotiating the bilateral trade agreement, the two sides have agreed to deepen economic ties and to more than double two-way trade to $500 billion by 2030 by deepening the trade relationship across multiple sectors, Prasada said in a written reply to a question from CPI-M lawmaker John Brittas in Rajya Sabha.
The US issued the “Memorandum on Reciprocal Trade and Tariffs” on February 13 that directed the commerce secretary and US trade representative to investigate harm to the US from any non-reciprocal trade arrangements adopted by trade partners and to propose remedies, based on which action would be undertaken.
“As on date, there has been no imposition of country-specific, including reciprocal, tariffs by US on India. There has been imposition of additional duties on steel and aluminium imports by US from all countries without any exemption,” Prasada said.
“The impact of these duties, which are an enhancement over existing such additional duties, is being closely evaluated due to the fact that there are no exemptions as compared to exemptions earlier to certain major exporting countries in these sectors,” he said.
In line with his “America First” policy, Trump earlier this month announced reciprocal tariffs on trade partners with higher levies on US imports. India significantly reduced its average applied tariffs for key developed countries such as Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland and Norway under recent bilateral trade deals. People familiar with the matter said ongoing discussions with the US should be seen in this context.
In its Union budget for 2025-26, India also lowered tariffs on bourbon whiskey, wines and electronic vehicles (EVs). These moves were seen as a signal to the US that India is open to cutting tariffs in specific sectors.
The US is also pushing India to buy more American oil and gas and military hardware to reduce the trade deficit of almost $45 billion. The US was India’s largest trade partner, with trade in goods and services worth $190 billion in 2023.