Greater Noida(Trade & Commerce desk): Commenting on US President Donald Trump’s announcement to levy a 25% tariff as well as secondary sanctions on exports from India starting from August 1, 2025, Mr Harsha Vardhan Agarwal, President, FICCI said, “FICCI is disappointed by the decision taken by the U.S. to levy 25% tariff on exports from India and impose secondary sanctions. While this move is unfortunate and will have a clear bearing on our exports, we hope that this imposition of higher tariffs will be a short-term phenomenon and that a permanent trade deal between the two sides will be finalised soon.”
“India and U.S. have a long-standing partnership, which is strengthened by our deepening engagement across an array of areas from technology to defence to energy and advance manufacturing. There is a lot our two countries can achieve together, and FICCI is confident that following the detailed deliberations that are currently underway, we will see beneficial outcomes for both countries when the contours of the final trade agreement will emerge,” he added.
India has been actively negotiating a BTA with the US since the start of the year, and we understand that there had been some specific demands from the US side which are not in our national interest and therefore Indian government has not given in to those demands from the US. Also, the US team is coming to India in latter half of August to further discuss on the BTA. We are hopeful that the two sides will make progress in their discussions and complete the negotiations by the September-October 2025.
US is an important market for Indian exporters, both in goods and in services and industry would like to have a long-term permanent agreement with the country. As our Hon’ble Commerce and Industry Minister has emphasised that India would prioritise national interests over meeting the deadlines in trade negotiations. The aim is to secure a beneficial pact rather than a hurried deal that gives short term benefit but may result in adverse outcomes in the long term.
It is also important to note that India offers a large market for U.S. businesses and many of the large companies from the U.S. benefit from leveraging the demand as well as the skills and talent pool that we have to offer.
