India could escape the ire of Trump tariffs, as the US President opened a front with China, Mexico and Canada on tariffs on February 1, according to a Moneycontrol analysis.
Data shows that exports from India to the US already attract higher tariffs than competing nations. 72.6 percent of Indian products exported to the US attract a 5 percent or less tariff, according to a Moneycontrol analysis, whereas other nations get more favourable treatment.
The US President on February 1 signed executive order imposing 25 percent tariff on Canada and Mexico, and 10 percent tariff on China. Energy imports from Canada would attract 10 percent tariff.
Donald Trump at a press conference on December 18 had noted that the word ‘reciprocal’ was important in trade relations.
“If India charges us 100 percent, do we charge them nothing for the same? You know, they send in a bicycle and we send them a bicycle. They charge us 100 and 200. India charges a lot. Brazil charges a lot. If they want to charge us, that's fine, but we're going to charge them the same thing,” the President-elect noted.
The analysis shows that these countries were treated more favourably than India by the US at present. For instance, 74.5 percent of Chinese exports to the US attract tariffs of five percent or less.
About 78.5 percent of Indonesian exports and 99.97 percent of Mexican exports to the US have tariffs of less than 5 percent.
An earlier analysis by Moneycontrol found that India imposed higher tariff rates than China, Mexico, Indonesia and Taiwan.
However, the recent Budget may have provided some reprieve, as India lowered the duty on completely build up motorcycles. High duties on Harley Davidson's was a flashpoint between the countries during the previous Trump administration between 2017 and 2020.
While India imposed a 10 percent or less tariff on 63.5 percent of the imports coming from the US, the corresponding figure for China, according to World Bank data, was 90 percent, while that for Indonesia, Mexico, and Vietnam was 79 percent, 76.5 percent, and 63.5 percent, respectively.
India’s tariffs also increased much faster. Nearly four percent of products entering India from the US were subject to a levy of over 30 percent, while only China, Indonesia, and Mexico levied over 30 percent duty on around one percent of the products.
Indian goods entering the US suffer a similar fate. Of the 3,773 products exported to the US, just 2,739 attract a tariff of 5 percent or less, 316 or 8.4 percent attract a 10-20 percent tariff, and another 1 percent attract over 30 percent.
In terms of value, $4.1 billion worth of exports from India to the US attract tariffs of over 20 percent.
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