Report decodes India, US arithmetic on tariffs

With days left before Donald Trump announces reciprocal tariffs on April 2, Indo-US trade negotiations continue to take place.

- Auhona Mukherjee

NEW DELHI: Will India drastically bring down its tariffs to address Donald Trump's criticism of Indian tariffs being too high? Will the reductions be across the board or commodity specific? A report released by Barclay's Chief India Economist Aastha Gudwani has analysed Indo-US trade in detail and suggests that India might take a cluster-wise approach to the negotiations.

US's trade deficit with India has increased significantly, but it is still relatively small compared to others. Data from US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BES) shows that US's trade deficit with India was rising consistently between 1999 and early 2010s after which it has stabilised. India's share in US's total goods and services trade deficit increased from less than 2% in the 2000s to reach a peak of more than 6% in the early 2010s but has stabilised at around 5% in the 2020s.