In charts: What reciprocal tariff threat could mean for Indian goods
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. US President Donald Trump has been relentless in his pursuit of a tariff overhaul ever since assuming office in January. After making Mexico, China, and Canada his first victims (even though he paused some of the moves for a limited time), and threatening 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports, he then announced his intention to introduce reciprocal tariffs on US’s imports from other countries, including India.
Highlighting the “high" tariffs from nations like Brazil, India, and China, he stated that his reciprocal tariff plan would be implemented starting 2 April. The US has consistently been India’s biggest trade partner, with a 17.7% share in its total exports in FY24. However, India is one of many sources of imports for the US: it made up just a 2.7% share of total US imports in FY24.
India’s dependence on US goods is more: the US’s share in India’s total imports was higher at 6.2% in FY24. India has maintained a consistent merchandise trade surplus with the US, which reached $35.3 billion in FY24. The weighted average tariff rates—a single indicator derived from tariff rates on different goods—imposed by both India and the US on goods imported from each other have significantly decreased since the 2000s.
India’s tariff rate, which averaged over 20% in 2000, has dropped to below 10%. The US’s tariff on Indian goods peaked at 3.9% in 2001 but has since fallen to 2.9% in 2022. Consequently, the tariff gap between the two countries reduced from a peak of 22.9 percentage points in 2000 to 2.5 percentage points in 2022, data from the World Integrated Trade Solutions (WITS) showed.
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