Quad Partnership, FTA To Reduce US Tariffs On India To 15%: Manish Chokhani
US President Donald Trump declared a 25% tariff on India after five rounds of talks over negotiating a free trade agreement.
The upcoming Quadrilateral Security Dialogue on Sept. 21 and the free trade agreement between India and the United States will lead to the reduction of the 25% tariffs to 15%, according to Manish Chokhani, director of Enam Holdings.
These factors will allow the "natural ally" rates of 15% to emerge as the economies of the two counties have shared interests on geopolitics and other complementary elements, Chokhani said.
"It is naturally a difficult phase in the USA-India friendship. However, I am sure the ongoing FTA talks, and the emerging Quad partnership will allow the 'natural ally' rates of 15% to emerge as the two economies have a lot of complementarities and shared geopolitical interest," he said.
"Let us wait for better times ahead even as we tackle this bump in the road," he added.
US President Donald Trump declared a 25% tariff on India after five rounds of talks over negotiating a free trade agreement.
Trump cited its tariff policy which he called "among the highest in the World," accusing it of "having the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary Trade Barriers of any country", via a post on Truth Social.
He also said that India "bought a vast majority" of its military equipment from Russia and said that it was Russia's "largest buyer" of energy.
He described this as "not good" as this was helping Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine and its ongoing war with the country, which Trump has been trying to negotiate a truce for.
Trump said that India would pay an additional penalty for this along with the 25% tariffs on Aug.1 due to this.
