India offers 'deep cuts' on tariffs as talks with US proceed
New Delhi aims, however, to maintain high tariffs on key agricultural products, the outlet has said
India has proposed deep cuts in import tariffs on various goods, in an effort to reach a preliminary trade agreement with the US, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. However, the country reportedly aims to maintain high tariffs on sensitive agricultural products, such as grains and dairy items.
India is seeking to secure a deal before July 9, when the US has threatened to impose a 26% reciprocal tariff on all Indian goods. Sources familiar with the negotiations told the FT that India has shown willingness to cut tariffs on less sensitive farm products such as almonds, which currently face tariffs of up to 120%. It could also consider reducing tariffs on imported oil and gas, which range from 2.5 to 3%, the report said.
The FT's sources declined to provide details on the range of US goods which New Delhi offered to "substantially" cut tariffs on, as the negotiations were at an "early stage." Indian trade officials have hinted, however, that any concessions would be similar to those offered in recent trade agreements, such as the one they have with the UK, in which India agreed to reduce tariffs on items such as alcoholic spirits, cars - including electric vehicles - car parts, and engineering goods.
On Tuesday, India said that a successful trade agreement with the US could "flip current headwinds into tailwinds," according to a report by the Finance Ministry's Monthly Economic Review. This can "open up new market access and energize exports," the report added.
The US introduced an additional tariff on Indian products, effective April 2, but it was suspended for a 90-day period, and is set to expire on July 9. Meanwhile, the standard 10% US tariff on Indian goods remains in places.
US President Donald Trump has called India the "tariff king." In February, New Delhi announced a reduction in customs duties on items including luxury cars and solar cells, according to reports, in a move seen as aimed at addressing US trade concerns.
India's federal budget for 2025 proposed reducing the peak import tariff from 150% to 70% and average tariffs from 13% to below 11%. India is also willing to buy US defense equipment and liquefied natural gas, government officials said. However, despite this, the US has advised companies such as Apple to avoid expanding manufacturing in India.
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Indian Express
15 minutes ago
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Economic Times
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Economic Times
17 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Tariff jitters temporary, long-term upside intact for India Inc.: Deepak Shenoy
Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads "Overall fund flows seem to be more concentrated towards domestic. There is also a lot more action in terms of results and some of these tariff news and all that stuff which is kind of still creating a lot of uncertainty," says Deepak Shenoy , Founder, Capital Mind We saw about 25,000 crores enter the markets as fresh entries into mutual funds in April and given that May was like a 9% plus month for smallcaps and smallcap funds have been the second largest recipient of funds in April, that will kind of bolster more retail investment into domestic funds even that, overall fund flows seem to be more concentrated towards domestic. There is also a lot more action in terms of results and some of these tariff news and all that stuff which is kind of still creating a lot of have come to the realisation that there is a little bit of back and forth and anybody says something about tariffs that is likely to be changed very quickly in whichever direction and mostly in the direction of removing those tariffs in a short period of I feel that in the end we will come down to 10% tariffs by the US to everybody and by and large some countries may receive a little more but I do not think this is going to be a major impact longer we realise this, it is less of an impact overall. The themes that seem to still be working is manufacturing, is financialization , and is maybe defence as themes that hurt perhaps are commodities because a large amount is based on world-wide demand as well, so that theme seems to be constant. I do not think today is any special day in that sense, but we have to be cognisant that as these tariffs come off and as eventually the wars in the world come to some kind of conclusion, the upside for India is definitely strong and I am biased, I am a fund manager, so we have to be positive but some of the positives are going to get more visible in the next six I will be honest. We run a company in this industry and therefore very-very heavily biased. But I still think this is the tip of the iceberg in terms of how much this industry can scale. I would not talk about who the winners will be and who the losers will be, but India is terribly under-financialized. Less than 18% of our GDP is in mutual funds whereas in America that number is more than 100%. So, to a certain extent there is a lot of room for the Indian organised financial industry to move. We are moving away from the real estate, gold, and chit funds kind of products to save into real financial products or financial products of a more regulated sort which has a lot more potential. You are seeing this happening. 25,000 crores a month net new inflows, most of that coming through SIPs This has not slowed down meaningfully even through the fact that the markets have corrected. We have seen more regulatory action that has fortified, so whether it is an RTA, whether it is an AMC, whether it is an exchange, or whether it is a depository all of them are getting more and more prominent in the overall structural framework of now it is becoming more and more easy to transact in them, to deal with them if a person dies transferring a financial product is way easier than trying to transfer say real estate or anything like a lot of these things add up over time and fortify people's minds into saying okay we will do this. You cannot sell half a house, but you could sell half a mutual therefore, people are actually getting more and more into financial products as such and the financial products themselves are investing in different things. You can buy gold through a mutual fund. You can buy stocks through a mutual fund. You can buy bonds and so on. So that way the industry itself has kind of scaled we are also seeing wealth management players, people who manage the money of relatively richer people even those stocks are kind of increasing in value and they are increasing in terms of growth as well, in terms of real profits. So, from that perspective we are yes, maybe we are overpaying for these stocks today, but a structural approach to buy them over a period of time is perhaps necessary for any growth oriented portfolio.
