US fact sheet on tariffs highlights high Indian levies on handful of products
India was among some 60 countries targeted by the Trump administration with specific reciprocal tariffs on the grounds that they have the most unfair trade barriers against American products
A White House fact sheet on President Donald Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs highlighted what it claimed were high Indian levies on a handful of products and pointed to non-tariff barriers that it contended are depriving US manufacturers of reciprocal access.
India was among some 60 countries targeted by the Trump administration with specific reciprocal tariffs on the grounds that they have the most unfair trade barriers against American products. Trump also announced a “baseline” 10% tariff on all US imports.
The White House fact sheet contended that India was among countries that “have taken advantage of the United States, tariffing us at higher rates” - a complaint levelled by Trump on numerous occasions in recent weeks.
It cited, for example, that the US imposes a 2.5% tariff on imports of passenger vehicles with internal combustion engines, while India has higher duties of 70% on the same product. The US has 0% tariff for networking switches and routers, while India levies duties of 10% to 20%, the fact sheet said.
The US tariff for rice in the husk is 2.7%, while the duty levied by India is 80%. Apples enter the US duty-free while the tariff in India is 50%.
The fact sheet further contended that the US has “one of the lowest simple average most-favored-nation (MFN) tariff rates” at 3.3%, while key trading partners such as India (17%), China (7.5%), the European Union (5%), Brazil (11.2%) and Vietnam (9.4%) have “significantly higher” rates.
The fact sheet also pointed to India in the section on non-tariff barriers, claiming these are depriving US manufacturers of reciprocal access to markets.
“India imposes their own uniquely burdensome and/or duplicative testing and certification requirements in sectors such as chemicals, telecom products, and medical devices that make it difficult or costly for American companies to sell their products in India,” the fact sheet said. Removing these barriers will lead to US exports increasing by an estimated $5.3 billion annually, it claimed.
The reciprocal tariffs appear to have been calculated by dividing the US’ trade deficit with a country by the value of goods imported from that country. Half that number (if it is greater than the baseline tariff of 10%) has been levied as a reciprocal tariff.
A closer reading of US Trade Representative documents reveals that the aim was to arrive at the “reciprocal tariff that results in a bilateral trade balance of zero”. But this requires assumptions on elasticity of imports and the price-pass through of tariffs. The USTR has assumed -4 as the import elasticity and 0.25 as the price pass-through.
The fact sheet mostly repeated Trump’s talking points about how large annual US goods trade deficits had hollowed out the country’s manufacturing base, undermined supply chains and rendered the American defence-industrial base dependent on foreign adversaries.
The reciprocal tariffs for India come days after a team led by US assistant trade representative Brendan Lynch visited India for talks aimed at finalising the terms of reference for a bilateral trade agreement (BTA), the first tranche of which is to be finalised by the fall of 2025.
Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed during a meeting in Washington in February to finalise the BTA to balance trade, which is currently in India’s favour.
According to the USTR, two-way trade in goods was worth an estimated $129.2 billion in 2024. US exports accounted for $41.8 billion, while Indian exports totalled $87.4 billion.