Government should convey to the U.S. that Indian tariffs are WTO-compliant, says think tank GTRI

GTRI advises India to clarify WTO compliance on tariffs to U.S. amid challenges in negotiating Free Trade Agreement.

India's import duties are in compliance with global trade rules and the government should convey this to the U.S. administration, Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), an economic think tank, said on Sunday (March 2, 2025).

It also said that negotiating a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the U.S. presents several challenges.

The U.S. may push India to open government procurement to American firms, reduce agricultural subsidies, weaken patent protections by allowing evergreening, and remove restrictions on data flows, it said, adding India had resisted these demands for decades and was still not prepared to accept them.

U.S. President Donald Trump on multiple occasions has alleged that India had high tariffs and termed it "tariff king" and "tariff abuser".

Tariffs are import duties imposed and collected by the government and paid by companies to bring foreign goods into the country.

"India's tariffs are consistent with WTO (World Trade Organization) rules. They are the result of a single undertaking at the WTO which all countries, including the U.S., approved in 1995...Indian tariffs are WTO compliant. The Indian side needs to explain [this] to the U.S.," GTRI founder Ajay Srivastava said.

The 166-member forum is the only international body that deals with the rules of trade between nations.