India less impacted by Trump tariffs than rivals: Assocham

Industry body Assocham today said Trump tariffs impact on India will be comparatively lower and called for enhancing export efficiency and value addition to mitigate the impact of the new tariff regime announced by the US.

“Tariffs unveiled by President Trump last night would bring a major realignment in global trade and manufacturing value chains. India has been placed somewhere in the middle of the tariff rates at 26% in addition to 10% baseline duties, which needs to be assessed for real impact,” said Sanjay Nayar, President, Assocham.

''Net-net, it appears India's export competitiveness to the US market stands far less impacted on a relative basis. Yet our industry should make concerted efforts to increase export efficiency and value addition, to mitigate impact of these tariffs,'' he said.

Nayar said that since most of American trading partners have planned to levy reciprocal tariffs, no country gets a winning advantage while consumers may end up paying more leading to inflationary pressures. “While we wait and watch for global reaction, for India the way forward could be a quick preferential trade deal keeping in view that President Trump still respects leadership of PM Modi,” he said, adding that India Inc would work closely with the government towards this matter.