In its 2025 National Trade Estimate report, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR)raised concerns on India’s “opaque and unpredictable” quantitative restrictions, patent regime and digital trade barriers such as data storage conditions. It said India restricts some imports only to government trading monopolies, subject to Cabinet approval regarding import timing and quantity.
Some Issues Already Resolved
Experts, however, noted that most of the issues are a repetition of earlier reports, while those such as equalisation levy and World Trade Organization (WTO) disputes have already been resolved.
“India maintains high applied tariffs on a wide range of goods, including vegetable oils (as high as 45%), apples, corn and motorcycles (50%), automobiles and flowers (60%), natural rubber (70%), coffee, raisins and walnuts (100%), and alcoholic beverages (150%),” the USTR said in its annual report. It lists key policies and practices of countries affecting US exports, investments and digital trade.
The USTR also criticised India’s strict import licensing for remanufactured goods and medical devices. In 2024, India stopped issuing licences for refurbished American medical devices, affecting US exports. While Washington sees this as unnecessary red tape, New Delhi worries that relaxing the rules could lead to a flood of used or low-quality products that might harm consumers and hurt local industries.
Live Events
The report flagged that India maintains “very high” basic customs duties on drug formulations, including life-saving drugs and finished medicines listed on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines. “High tariff rates present a significant barrier to trade in other agricultural goods and processed foods (like poultry, potatoes, citrus, almonds, pecans, apples, grapes, canned peaches, chocolate, cookies, frozen french fries and other prepared foods used in fast-food restaurants),” it said.According to the report, India’s WTO-bound tariff rates on farm products are among the “highest” in the world, averaging 113.1% and ranging as high as 300%.“Given the large disparity between WTO bound and applied rates, India has considerable flexibility to change tariff rates for both agricultural and non-agricultural products at any time, creating tremendous uncertainty for US workers, farmers, ranchers and exporters,” it added.
Non-tariff Barriers
The USTR said India has imposed import bans, restrictions, licensing requirements on certain goods, mandatory quality control orders, customs barriers, price control on medical devices and mandatory domestic testing and certification norms for equipment.
On the dairy sector, it said New Delhi imposes onerous requirements such as mandating that dairy products intended for food be derived from animals that have not consumed feeds containing internal organs, blood meal or tissues of ruminant or porcine origin, and that exporting countries should certify to these conditions.
“This requirement, along with the recent dairy health certificate requirements, new facility registration requirements and high tariff rates, continues to hamper market access for US milk and dairy product exports to India, one of the largest dairy markets in the world,” it said. Washington continues to press India to provide greater access to the Indian dairy market.
“India has conducted a number of localised shutdowns of the internet in recent years,” it said, adding that these curb access to information and services, disrupting commercial operations, undermining a free and open internet and impeding trade in the digital economy.
