India on Saturday announced a hike in customs duties on a♈s many as 28 US products, including almond♑, pulses and walnut, in response to higher tariffs imposed by Washington on Indian products like steel and aluminium.
The increased customs duties will come into effect from Sunday, an official 𓂃notification said.
The move will hurt American exporters of these 28 items as they will have to pay higher duties, making those item💮s costlier in the Indian market.
Amending its June 30, 2017, notification, the Central Board of Indirect taxes and Customs (CBIC) said Saturday's notification will "implement the imposition of retaliatory duties on 28 specifiedℱ goods originating in or exported from USA and preserving the existing MFN rate for all these goods for all countries other than USA".
Earlier, the list included 29 gooඣds but India has removed artemia, a kind of shrimp, from the list.
The country would get a♛bout USD 217 million additional revenue from s𒁏uch imports.
The government had on June 21, 2018 decided to impose these duties in retaliation to the U꧅S decision of significantly hiking customs duties on certain s♛teel and aluminium products.
America had in March last year imposed 25 per cent tariff on steel and a 10 per cent import duty on alumini💝um products. Earlier, there was no duty on these goods.
As India is one of the major exporters of these items to the US, the move has revenue implication of abo🌠ut USD 240 million on domestic steel an🅠d aluminium products.
India extended the deadline for🐻 imposition of these duties eight times in the hope that some solution would emerge during a negotiation between India and the US on a proposed trade💟 package.
But those negotiations came to a halt following the decision of the US to withdraw export incentives to Indian exporters under its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) programme. The♚se benefits were rolled back from June 5. It will impact goods worth USD 5.ꦜ5 billion from India to America.
As part of the impo🐲sition of higher import duties on US produc🐻ts, India has notified higher tariffs on several goods.
While import duty on walnut has been hiked to 120 per cent from 30 per cent, duty on chickpeas, Bengal gram (chana) and masur dal will be raised to 70 per cent, from 30 per✅ cent currently. Levy on lentils will be ꧟increased to 40 per cent.
The duty on boric acid and binders for foundry moulds would be hiked to 7.5 per cent, while that on domestic reagents will be increased t🌱o 10 per cent.
The other prꦕoducts on which duties will be hiked include certain kind of nuts, iron and steel products, apples, pears, flat rolled products of stainless steel, other alloy steel, tube and pipe fittin൲gs, and screws, bolts and rivets.
India has also dragged the US to the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism over the imposition of im🐲port duties on steel and aluminium.
India exports steel and aluminium products worth about USD 1.5 billion to the US every yeꦬar.
India's exports to the US in 2017-18 stood at USD 47.9 billion, while impo♔rts were at USD 26.7 𝐆billion. The trade balance is in favour of India.
(PTI)
