Indian officials visit US for talks over import tariff on steel

A team of officials from India has gone to America for talks with the US administration over 25 per cent tariff it has imposed on steel imports, an official said today.

The talks are on and officials from commerce and steel ministries are in discussion on the issue, the official told PTI.

"The team is in the US right now," the official added.

The official who did not wish to be quoted also said India is fully prepared for a dumping like situation in future and will not hesitate in taking steps like imposing safeguard measures.

Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh had last week expressed concern that the heavy tariff imposed by the US can affect the domestic steel sector as many steel making countries may end up dumping their produce into India.

In March, US President Donald Trump had imposed a 25 per cent import tariff on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium.

Singh had said: "The US decision to impose 25 per cent tariff on steel imports will have negligible direct impact (on India's export) as India's share of US Steel imports is very small as compared to other countries but there might be an indirect impact".

India may be exporting very less amount of steel to the US but other countries export in huge quantity to that country and with high tariffs in place they may start looking for new steel consuming markets like India to export their produce, he explained.

India had indicated last month that it may withdraw the notification imposing additional duties on 29 US products, to be effective from August 4, if both the sides are able to sort out the differences over tariffs.

These issues were discussed during the three-day meeting between senior officials of both the countries here. It was also decided that another official level meeting will be held in the US.