US proposes extra 12.5% tariffs on Indian imports: What is the current levy on Indian goods?
A list of 54 US trading partners – including India, China, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland – would face additional tariffs for failing ‘to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor.’
The United States has proposed 12.5 per cent additional tariffs on India and other trading partners the failure to impose and enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor in an attempt to build a tariff wall after his earlier global levies that Donald Trump imposed were struck down by the US Supreme Court.
Under the proposal released in Washington late Tuesday, six economies have failed to effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor. These are Canada, Ecuador, the European Union, Indonesia, Mexico, and Pakistan.
A list of other 54 trading partners – including India, China, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland – would also face the measure for failing “to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor.”
Who gets 10% and 12.5% levies?
According to the Office of the US Trade Representative, the additional duty of 10 per cent would be imposed on all products of the investigated economies that “impose a forced labor import prohibition, that have committed to impose and enforce such a prohibition through an Agreement on Reciprocal Trade, or economies that have imposed a partial regime with the effect of preventing the importation of certain forced labor goods.”
For all other economies, the US Trade Representative proposes 12.5 per cent as the rate of additional duty.
The levies won’t go into effect immediately.
What is the current levy on Indian goods?
Trump’s broad trade agenda suffered a sharp blow in February when the Supreme Court struck down levies he imposed using emergency powers.
As a stopgap measure, the president also implemented a 10 per cent global levy under Section 122 of the trade law, though those import taxes expire in July.
Under the interim India-US trade framework earlier this year, the reciprocal tariff rate was proposed at 18 per cent as compared to the 50 per cent that were announced last year.
What India said on proposed tariffs?
India is engaged with the US on the Section 301 investigations over concerns related to forced labour and excess industrial capacity, the government said on Wednesday, PTI reported.
“India remains engaged with the US on the matter as a part of Section 301 proceedings,” the Commerce and Industry Ministry said Wednesday, Bloomberg reported, adding that talks on the framework agreement announced in February are also ongoing.
(With agency inputs)