India's bilateral relations with Iran, and the United States stand on their own merit and are not influenced by relations between other countries. Government of India consistently monitors all developments with a bearing on its national interest and takes necessary measures to safeguard and protect the same.

The U.S. imposed additional tariff of 25% and 10% on steel and aluminum respectively under section 232 of Trade Expansion Act, 1962 in March, 2018 on a global basis. While India’s steel export in the affected lines to US declined by 35% during the FY 2018-19 compared to FY 2017-18, aluminum export in the affected lines have increased by 14% during the same period.

India has been engaged with the US on this issue, as part of the ongoing bilateral trade dialogue. The US did not accede to India’s request for withdrawal of these duties. In response, Government of India imposed retaliatory tariffs on 28 products originating or exported from the US with effect from 16^th June,2019 vide notification no. 17/2019-Customs dated 15^th June,  2019 of Department of Revenue. The retaliatory tariffs are expected to have an additional impact in terms of duty incidence of about USD 217 Million (approx.)  on these 28 products imported from US.

This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Hardeep Singh Puri in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

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MM/SB

Retaliatory tariffs deployed after national security based import duties triggered targeted additional duties on specified US imports. Imposition of additional import duties under national-security tariff authority prompted India to deploy retaliatory tariffs on twenty-eight specified product lines from the United States via a customs notification effective mid June 2019, implemented after bilateral trade dialogue failed to secure withdrawal of the earlier duties and intended to increase duty incidence on those imports.