India revises WTO retaliation plan against US steel, aluminium tariffs

India has revised its WTO proposal to impose retaliatory duties on US goods after the US hiked tariffs on steel and aluminium to 50 per cent

New Delhi: India has revised its proposal to impose retaliatory duties under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) norms against the US over American tariffs on steel and aluminium in view of the further hike in duty by the Trump administration.

The US first imposed 25 per cent tariffs on imports of aluminium, steel and derivative articles on March 12. Again, on June 3, the taxes were hiked to 50 per cent. “Without prejudice to its earlier notification to the Council for Trade in Goods and the Committee on Safeguards dated May 12, India reserves its right to adjust the products and tariff rates. This request is made in response to the increase in the tariff rate by the US from 25 per cent ad valorem to 50 per cent,” the WTO has said in a communication on Wednesday.

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This was circulated among WTO members at the request of India. It said that the proposed suspension of concessions or other obligations can take the form of an increase in tariffs on selected products originating in the US.

“The safeguard measures would affect USD 7.6 billion imports into the United States of the relevant products originating in India, on which the duty collection would be USD 3.82 billion,” it said.

Accordingly, India’s proposed suspension of concessions would result in an equivalent amount of duty collected from products originating in America. In the May 12 communication, the duty collection figure was stated as USD 1.91 billion.

The first Trump administration, in 2018, imposed a 25 per cent duty on certain steel items and a 10 per cent duty on aluminium products on the grounds of national security. In retaliation, India in June 2019 slapped customs duties on 28 US products, including almonds and walnuts. India had also filed a complaint in the WTO.

The proposal assumes significance as both countries are negotiating a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA). The Indian team is also expected to visit Washington next week to the US for trade talks.