Sunil Barthwal, the commerce secretary, told a parliamentary panel that India has not committed to lowering trade tariffs with the United States. He informed the parliamentary committee on external affairs that no trade agreement had been finalised and that talks between the US and India were still in progress.
“One cannot go by the US President’s claims and on media reports as the bilateral trade agreement talks between the two nations are still on. India has not committed to anything on trade tariffs to the US,” he was quoted as saying.
Although India is in favour of trade liberalisation, he has claimed that a tariff war is counterproductive and could “even trigger a recession.”
Barthwal addressed similarities with Canada and Mexico, two countries that have aggressively opposed US tariff policy, pointing out that their circumstances differed because of border immigration and security issues with the US. He reiterated that only “mutually beneficial” trade agreements will be signed by India.
He assured that India’s interests were non-negotiable during trade negotiations. “India was in favour of free trade and wanted liberalisation of trade, which will help increase trade between the two countries,” he said.
“India will not indiscriminately lower tariffs, especially in sectors crucial to its domestic economy. India prefers to negotiate tariff reductions bilaterally rather than multilaterally to ensure national interests are upheld,” Barthwal added.
Trump has disrupted international trade in the first few weeks of his second term by enacting tariffs on both allies and enemies. He has declared broad retaliatory tariffs that would go into force next month, including on India, and accused all trading partners of engaging in “unfair” practices.
Trump called New Delhi’s trade policies restrictive and reiterated his criticism of India’s “massive tariffs” last week.
“You can’t sell anything into India, it is almost restrictive. They have agreed, by the way, they want to cut their tariffs way down now because somebody is finally exposing them for what they have done,” Trump said.
Also Read: Adani Ports Set For Strong Growth As India Accelerates Development: Macquarie
