The government yesterday extended the deadline for retaliatory customs duties on 29 US products till April 1. Originally set to go live from June 28, 2018, the tariffs have been repeatedly postponed by the government.
A notification said that implementation of increased customs duty on specified imports originating in USA has been postponed from March 2, 2019, to April 1, 2019.
While import duty on walnut is to be hiked to 120 per cent from 30 per cent, duty on chickpeas, Bengal gram (chana) and masur dal will be hiked to 70 per cent from 30 per cent. Levy on lentils will be hiked to 40 per cent from 30 per cent.
Other products which would attract higher duties include boric acid, phosphoric acid, diagnostic reagent, flat rolled products of iron.
Senior officials of India and the US are in discussions to finalise a kind of trade package. Both sides are holding two track discussions — to increase trade in short and medium term, and identify long-term trade potentials.
As many as 3,500 Indian products from sectors such as chemicals and engineering get duty-free access to the US market under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), introduced in 1976.
US is pressurising India on its Generalised System of Preference programme, in which it has dropped as many as 50 Indian goods from the list of items.
The duty hike move by India was in retaliation to US President Donald Trump's March 9 decision to impose heavy tariffs on imported steel and aluminium items.
India's exports to the US in 2017-18 stood at USD47.9 billion, while imports were USD26.7 billion.