India has removed additional duties on several US products, including chickpeas, lentils, and apples, which were imposed in retaliation to America’s tariffs on steel and aluminium products. This move comes ahead of US President Joe Biden’s visit to India for the G20 Summit. Both countries had previously agreed to terminate WTO disputes and remove retaliatory tariffs on certain US products.
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A day after former J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti expressed concern over removal of additional duties on apples, walnuts, and almonds on local growers in J&K, the union government said that the move will not have an adverse impact as the basic duty of 50% will continue to protect domestic players.
This comes after India recently lifted additional duties on several American products, such as chickpeas, lentils, and apples. The retaliatory measures were imposed in 2019 in response to the United States’ decision to raise tariffs on specific steel and aluminum items.
Government has said that a duty of 50 percent on US apples and hundred percent on walnuts will continue to be applicable. Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said that only additional twenty percent duty has been removed.
He said that additional duties of 20 percent each on apples and walnuts were imposed on the US’s products in 2019 as a retaliation to the US’s state protectionist measure of increasing tariffs on certain steel and aluminum products.
Mr. Goyal stated these additional duties imposed by India on US-origin products have been withdrawn as the US agreed to provide market access to Steel and Aluminium products under the exclusion process.
He added that, there is no reduction on the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) duty on apples, walnuts and almonds, which still applies to all imported products, including US-origin products.
The Minister said that this measure will not result in any negative impact on domestic apple, walnut and almond producers.
Additional secretary of the commerce ministry Peeyush Kumar during a press briefing said that the government is monitoring imports and that it has sufficient policy space to support growers if there is any implication of the move adding that only the additional duty has been removed and the basic duty of 50% will continue.
