“We have asked industry on how they see trade with the US and the possible impact of pronouncements that Trump has made. We have sought their inputs to evaluate the issues and their offensive interests,” said an official. The inputs will be used to develop India’s export strategy and evolve the approach in trade talks with the US.
The exercise assumes significance with Trump threatening to impose reciprocal tax on India alleging that New Delhi levies high tariffs on certain US goods.
Separately, the commerce and industry ministry is also examining the contours of the mini trade deal that India and the US were negotiating during Trump’s previous term.
“Negotiations, discussions, retaliation, dispute or mini trade deal, nothing is off or on the cards,” the official added.
The US is India’s second largest trading partner with $53 billion of goods exports in April-November FY25 and $30 billion of imports. US imports from India rose at a 10.48% compound annual growth rate between 2001 and 2023 as against total imports at 4.76%.
New Delhi will take a call on the proposed mini-trade deal that was discussed during Trump’s first administration as he’s currently building his team after which there would be policy pronouncements. Think tank Global Trade Research Initiative has suggested that as part of a five-pronged strategy to navigate the Trump-led trade administration, India should diversify IT exports to ease risks arising from potential tariffs as a major portion of India’s IT export revenue comes from the US. Lowering import tariffs, strengthening data policies, rejecting the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) trade pillar and boosting Make in India are the other suggestions.
India and the US are part of the IPEF and three of the four pillars of the pact are already operational except the one on trade. The IPEF is structured around four pillars relating to trade, supply chains, clean economy and fair economy (issues such as tax and anti-corruption). India has joined all the pillars except the trade one.
