Piyush Goyal to meet exporters on Apr 9 to discuss Trump's tariff on India

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal is likely to hold a meeting with exporters on Wednesday, April 9, to take stock of issues to be faced by Indian traders due to the imposition of an additional 26 per cent reciprocal tariffs by the Trump administration, an industry official said on Sunday.

Senior officials of the commerce ministry and representatives of export promotion councils (EPCs) and the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) will attend the deliberations, according to the industry official.

Meanwhile, an exporter said that the government should come forward to extend fiscal incentives to all exporters, particularly MSMEs, in this situation, as the US tariffs will have an impact on the country's shipments.

The effect of these duties is expected to be reflected starting May as demand will take a hit in the US.

"Sweeping increases in duties on all the countries in the world will have an inflationary impact on the US customers. It would hit demand for all types of goods not only in the US but in other parts of the world as well," an exporter said.

The exporter added that interest subvention should be given to all exporters to provide credit at concessional rates.

The US accounts for about 18 per cent of India's total goods exports and 6.22 per cent in imports and 10.73 per cent in bilateral trade. Exports have declined for the fourth month in February due to global economic uncertainties.

India's merchandise exports stood at USD 395.63 billion during April-February 2024-25 as against USD 395.38 billion in the same period previous year. The estimated value of service exports during April-February 2024-25 is USD 354.90 billion as compared to USD 311.05 billion in April-February 2023-24.

India's export sectors such as shrimp, carpet, medical devices and gold jewellery will face the impact of the 26 per cent additional import duties announced by the US.