India extends deadline to introduce retaliatory tariffs on 29 American goods

The Indian government has extended the deadline for imposing retaliatory customs duties on 29 US goods, including almonds, walnuts and legumes, to April 1.

As there are discussions between India and the US over a proposed trade package, the Commerce Department has asked its finance counterpart to again postpone the implementation of the high tariff notice on US products.

The notice states that the imposition of an increased customs duty on said imports originating from the United States has been delayed from March 2, 2019 to April 1, 2019.

In June 2017, India decided to introduce tariff retaliatory after the United States imposed high customs duties on certain steel and aluminum products.

As part of the introduction of higher import duties, New Delhi has notified tariff increases on several products. While the import duty on walnuts has been raised to 120 percent from 30 percent currently, the duty on chickpeas, Bengali gram (chana) and masur dal will be raised to 70 percent from 30 percent currently. The tax on lentils will be increased from 30 to 40 percent.

Senior officials in India and the United States are discussing the development of some sort of trade package. Both sides have two discussions: to increase trading volume in the short and medium term and to identify long-term trading potentials.

India is pushing for exemptions from high US duties imposed on certain steel and aluminum products, renewing export privileges on certain domestic goods under their Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), expanding market access for its products from agriculture, automobiles, automotive components ... and engineering industries.

On the other hand, the United States is demanding increased market access by lowering import duties on agricultural products, dairy products, medical devices, information technology and communications.

India's exports to the United States in 2017-18 totaled $ 47.9 billion and imports $ 26.7 billion. Trade balance in favor of India.