Two days before U.S. President Joe Biden arrives in New Delhi for a bilateral meeting as well as the G-20 Summit, India has dropped the retaliatory customs tariffs it had imposed on imports of some American goods like almonds and lentils, effective September 6, 2023.
India had raised import duties on 28 American products in June 2019, after the United States had hiked its customs duties on certain steel and aluminium products. In a notification issued on September 5, the Finance Ministry dropped some of these tariff hikes “on being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do”.
During his State visit to the U.S. in June 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Biden administration had agreed to resolve six bilateral trade disputes that were pending at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and unwind the tit-for-tat tariff hikes imposed on some U.S. products, including walnuts, almonds and apples.
