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The U.S. has reiterated that India maintains "high" import duties connected a scope of goods, including cultivation products, pharmaceuticals and alcoholic beverages, on with assorted non-tariff barriers.
India has ever maintained that its duties are successful compliance with the rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
According to the U.S. Trade Representative's 2026 National Trade Estimate (NTE) Report connected overseas commercialized barriers, released connected March 31, fixed the ample disparity betwixt WTO bound and applied rates, India has sizeable flexibility to alteration tariff rates for some cultivation and non-agricultural products astatine immoderate time, creating tremendous uncertainty for U.S. workers, farmers, ranchers, and exporters.
It is an yearly study that lists cardinal policies and practices of countries that impact U.S. exports, investments, and integer trade. In 2025 also, the study has alleged that import tariffs successful India are high.
The study has highlighted respective commercialized and regulatory challenges betwixt the U.S. and India, including issues related to tariffs, non-tariff barriers, intelligence property, services, integer trade, and transparency.
According to commercialized experts, astir of the issues are repeats of earlier reports, and a fewer person been resolved already.
"India maintains precocious applied tariffs connected a wide scope of goods, including rootlike oils (as precocious arsenic 45%); apples, corn, and motorcycles (50%); automobiles and flowers (60%); earthy rubber (70%); coffee, raisins, and walnuts (100%); and alcoholic beverages (150%)," the study has said.
In addition, it said, India maintains "very high" basal customs duties connected cause formulations, including life-saving drugs and finished medicines listed connected the World Health Organisation's database of indispensable medicines.
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"High tariff rates besides contiguous a important obstruction to commercialized successful different cultivation goods and processed foods (example poultry, potatoes, citrus, almonds, pecans, apples, grapes, canned peaches, chocolate, cookies, frozen gallic fries, and different prepared foods utilized successful fast-food restaurants)," it added.
India's World Trade Organisation (WTO) bound tariff rates connected cultivation products are among the "highest" successful the world, averaging 113.1% and ranging arsenic precocious arsenic 300%. India routinely changes the surcharge connected a scope of cultivation products, it said.
The report, however, stated that successful its 2026 budget, India has reduced applied tariffs connected a scope of products crossed aggregate sectors, including lifesaving medicines, earthy materials and components for electrical conveyance and mobile telephone artillery manufacturing, captious minerals specified arsenic lithium-ion artillery scrap, cobalt powder, pb and zinc, definite physics components, mobile telephone parts and different concern inputs.
On non-tariff barriers, it said India has imposed import bans, restrictions, licensing requirements connected definite goods, mandatory Quality Control Orders (QCOs), customs barriers, terms power connected aesculapian devices, and mandatory home investigating and certification requirements for equipment.
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"..the opaque and unpredictable quality of India's exertion of quantitative restrictions has affected the quality of US exporters to entree the market. The United States, on with different trading partners, continues to rise India's exertion of quantitative restrictions astatine the WTO," it said.
It added that to enforce import licenses, India distinguishes betwixt goods that are caller and those that are secondhand, remanufactured, refurbished, oregon reconditioned.
"U.S. stakeholders person reported that obtaining an import licence for remanufactured goods is onerous. US stakeholders noted excessive details are required successful the licence application, quantity limitations are acceptable for circumstantial parts, and agelong delays hap betwixt the submission of an exertion and the granting of a license," it said.
The study besides alleged that India's tariff rates are announced with the yearly fund and are modified connected an advertisement hoc ground done notifications successful the Gazette without the accidental for nationalist comment.
"The tariff rates are taxable to galore exemptions that alteration according to the product, user, intended use, oregon circumstantial export promotion program. This renders India's customs strategy some analyzable and unfastened to administrative discretion," it said, adding that U.S. companies person reported being taxable to extended inspections and seizures of imports that bash not look to beryllium risk-based.
On QCOs, it said these orders people earthy materials and intermediate goods successful summation to finished products, which tin disrupt proviso chains.
"The United States has concerns that BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) standards are not afloat aligned with planetary standards, and India has not demonstrated that planetary standards would beryllium ineffective oregon inappropriate; often bash not supply a means of establishing conformity oregon see importantly burdensome requirements; and deficiency wide timelines for modulation periods and licence validity," the study said.
Despite definite affirmative developments astatine the QCO front, burdensome and trade-restrictive QCOs inactive stay successful effect for cardinal U.S. exports, including aesculapian devices, chemicals, electronics, cosmetic ingredients, and agriculture.
It added that India lacks an overarching authorities procurement policy, and, arsenic a result, its authorities procurement practices and procedures alteration among antithetic ministries wrong the cardinal government.
Like past year, the study has flagged concerns connected India's intelligence spot policies and services sector.
"Foreign concern successful businesses successful definite large services sectors, including fiscal services and retail, is taxable to limitations connected overseas equity, and overseas information successful nonrecreational services is importantly restricted," it said.
In addition, barriers to integer commercialized and physics commerce, specified arsenic those imposed connected physics outgo providers, person secondary effects connected a wide assortment of services, it added.
On the net segment, it said India has conducted a fig of localised shutdowns of the Internet successful caller years, and these shutdowns restrict entree to accusation and services, disrupting commercialized operations, and thereby undermining a escaped and unfastened Internet and impeding commercialized successful the integer economy.
"The United States continues to show the interaction of these events connected U.S. commercialized and investment, including services exports," it added.
