India directly approaches US for aluminium and steel tariffs impunity

Not many days ago, India urged the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to exempt it from the recently-enacted US aluminium and steel tariffs. While already by now, the country has directly approached the United States for the exemption, with a supportive reasoning that its aluminium and steel exports could no way pose a security threat to the US, reported by three government officials.

Last week, the US president Donald Trump relieved Argentina, Australia, Brazil, South Korea, Canada, Mexico and the European Union from its heavy duties on imported metals and said that until May 1, 2018, the other countries seeking for an exemption should correspond with Washington. Therefore, India’s Trade Ministry has written to the US government, asking for the tariffs impunity.

According to the report by Reuters, India’s Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh thinks that the US metal imported tariffs might affect India’s export market. He even believes that India's exports to the US are too marginal to pose any kind of security threat. In fact, India is not even included in the list of nations with which the US government had a large deficit.

In 2016, the trade between India and the US was only US$115 billion and the trade deficit was at US$3 billion. However, in 2017, the imbalance improved a bit, reported by the official.

Added to this, a third government official opined that India should also warn Washington about China’s increasing exports to India due to the high tariffs in the US, which may put the domestic market at risk.