India will likely defer its plan yet again by a month to impose retaliatory tariff worth close to $235 million on 29 American products, in response to the Trump administration’s extra levy on supplies of steel and aluminium.

India will likely defer its plan yet again by a month to impose retaliatory tariff worth close to $235 million on 29 American products, in response to the Trump administration’s extra levy on supplies of steel and aluminium. The deadline to hold the tit-for-tat action is to expire on Wednesday. New Delhi’s latest move comes after the US indicated that it could hold its proposed withdrawal of incentives on annual Indian exports of $5.6 billion under the so-called generalised system of preference (GSP) until the formation of the new government in India.

The US’ rollback of the export incentives worth $190 million a year was to kick in from around mid-May. Already, both the countries are engaged in negotiations to firm up a mutually-acceptable trade package. Last year, the US had slapped an additional 25% duty on steel and 10% on aluminium supplies from countries, including India. New Delhi had initially planned to slap the retaliatory tariff from August 4 last year. The repeated deadline extension suggests New Delhi is willing to engage Washington further for a meaningful outcome to the ongoing negotiations.

Source : PTI