Centre vows to avoid protectionist signals on trade: Finmin official

India does not want to give any signal that it is protectionist, the top bureaucrat in the finance ministry said, after slashing import duties on high-end motorcycles, amid US President Donald Trump's moves on tariffs.

Sunday's remarks came a day after Trump ignited a trade war with sweeping tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. None were aimed at India, although Trump had called it a tariff abuser during his election campaign last year.

"We don't want to give anybody any signal that we would like to be protectionist," Finance Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey told Reuters. "Our stance is that we don't want to increase protection."

Trade and immigration issues will take centrestage when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Trump this month.

India has been trying to placate the Trump administration after it accused the South Asian nation of maintaining very high tariffs that hurt prospects for American firms.

Trump's administration has upped the ante by recently raising the issue of undocumented Indians living in the United States, a topic on which India's foreign ministry has said it is in dialogue with US authorities.

India slashed custom duties on motorcycles with engine capacity of 1,600 cc or more to 30 per cent from 50 per cent on fully-built imports in Saturday's budget, which Pandey said also cut its average level of tariffs to 11 per cent from 13 per cent.

"We should give the right signal for the world, as well as to our own industry," Pandey added, saying the tariff measures aimed at helping domestic companies initially but would be phased out as those industries developed.