To trade softly on US toes: How should India navigate Trump’s time-bound reciprocal tariff gauntlet?
Donald Trump has put India on a tough timeline on trade and reciprocal tariffs. While India and the US agreed on Feb 13 to conclude the first tranche of a bilateral trade agreement (BTA) by Sept-Oct, US Trade Representative (USTR) has simultaneously put into motion actions on reciprocal tariffs with an April 1 deadline, also set by Trump.
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Through a Feb 20 notification, USTR has asked for information by Mar 11 from 'any interested party' on unfair trade practices owing to non-reciprocal trading arrangements. It specifically names India as an economy having large trade deficit in goods with the US, stating that USTR is 'particularly interested in submissions' on these economies. Others include key G20 countries, which together account for 88% of total goods traded with the US.
Further, USTR has stated that unfair trade practices can encompass an 'expansive range of practices, such as policies, measures, or barriers that undermine or harm US production, or exports', including a 'non-market policy or practice'.
For India, this presents an immediate problem as it makes the period post-April tricky. Can India get the US to hold off on imposing any reciprocal tariffs till the negotiations on BTA, as identified in the Feb 13 India-US joint statement, are completed? This is a political question, which can only be answered in economic terms — essentially,
