India expects exemption from Trump's tariffs, believes duties 'not a setback'

Senior officials from the commerce and industry ministry have been engaged in review meetings since 3 am on April 3, according to the sources.

India believes US President Donald Trump’s imposition of 26 percent tariff on New Delhi “isn’t a setback” and expects to get an exemption under Clause 4 of the executive order, top sources in the commerce ministry have said.

The officials said a 10 percent tariff could be imposed on India and the rest of the world from April 5 and another 16 percent from April 10.

The Centre , which has set a control room to deal with Trump’s tariff, believes the levies will have an impact on some sectors but others will benefit.

Senior commerce and industry ministry officials have been holding review meetings since 3 am on April 3, sources said, as the US president rolled out his reciprocal tariff plan.

The government is conducting a review based on the tariffs imposed on difference countries and New Delhi believes it could secure exemptions if it can address US concerns, the sources said.

India is drawing comfort from Section C of Clause 4 of Trump’s executive order, which says that the administration will be ready to reduce or limit tariffs imposed “if a trading partner takes significant steps to remedy non-reciprocal trade arrangements and align sufficiently with US on economic and national security matters”.

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Earlier, Trump unveiled global reciprocal tariffs at an event at the White House. He held up a chart as he addressed media, showing the United States would impose a 26 percent levy on Indian imports. The chart showed a 34 percent tax on Chinese goods, 20 percent on imports from the European Union, 24 percent on Japanese products and 32 percent on Taiwanese shipments.

America would charge India “discounted reciprocal tariffs” of 26 percent, he said.

“India, very, very tough. Very, very tough. The Prime Minister just left. He's a great friend of mine, but I said, ‘You're a friend of mine, but you’re not treating us right.’ They charge us 52 per cent. You have to understand, we charge them almost nothing, for years and years and decades, and it was only seven years ago, when I came in, we started with China and we took in hundreds of billions of dollars from China in tariffs,” Trump said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Washington DC in February, as the two sides talked about speeding up work on a bilateral agreement and strengthening trade ties between the two countries.