India strongly retaliated against US President Donald Trump’s imposition of heavy tariffs on imported steel and aluminium items by raising tariffs on a slew of items, including agri products and other items.
The duty hike would come into effect immediately for 28 products but for artemia, a kind of shrimp, the rate hike would be effective from August 4, said the finance ministry.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration’s retaliatory move came in wake of a global trade war between the U.S. and its key trading partners.
“The increase in tariffs is a message to the U.S. administration to take concerns of other nations seriously,” said Sachin Chaturvedi, director general at New Delhi-based think tank Research and Information System for Developing Countries.
He added, “Now this is unlikely to remain confined to a tariff war and will escalate to non-tariff measures as well.”
The EU this week triggered the first phase of retaliation against the U.S. over its metal-import tariffs imposed on national-security grounds.
India has also towed the US to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism over the imposition of import duties on steel and aluminium as raised levies has affected steel exports by $198.6 million and aluminium shipments by $42.4 million.
Ministry of Finance revealed India to raise import duty on chickpeas and Bengal gram, or chana, to 70 percent and with effect from August 4.
India will increase tariffs on other items, including walnuts, almonds, boric acid, apples, diagnostic reagents, some hot-rolled coil products, other alloy steel, tube and pipe fittings, and screws, bolts and rivets.
“Responses of partner nations are adequate enough to force the U.S. to do that,” said Biswajit Dhar, a professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
