India May Present Tariff Cut Plan to US to Avert Tariff Blow

India is planning to lay out a road map for duty cuts on certain American imports when a US trade team arrives for discussions next week, in an effort to avert the retaliatory tariffs that US President Donald Trump has said will be imposed on 2 April.

- Rajeev Jayaswal

The proposals are likely to be part of what is regarded as an early harvest deal, people aware of the developments said, adding these could be presented to the US negotiating team visiting Delhi next week.

The officials outlined specific multilateral legal obligations that will need to be worked around, as HT reported on 21 March. The World Trade Organization (WTO) framework prohibits any member from reducing tariffs for one country without extending the same benefit to other members, except through a free trade agreement (FTA).

Since a comprehensive FTA could take months to negotiate, "the only way is to immediately commit to a bilateral trade agreement, including tariff reduction on identified items under an early harvest deal," one of these people said.

"It is expected that this matter could be discussed between the negotiating teams of the two countries meeting face-to-face for the first time in New Delhi next week," this person added, declining to provide specific details of the proposed meeting.