India and the United States have decided to reschedule the proposed meeting of their chief negotiators, supposed to be held in Washington from Monday, to finalise the text for the interim trade pact, reported news agency PTI citing sources. The development is important following the US Supreme Court's verdict against sweeping importtariffsimposed by US President Donald Trump's administration on trade partners. Trump on Friday imposed a 10 per cent tariff on all countries, including India, from February 24 for 150 days after the court verdict. Trump on Saturday announced raising tariffs on all countries to 15 per cent from 10 per cent announced a day earlier.
"With regards to the visit of the Indian team of negotiators to the US for the India-US trade deal, the two sides are of the view that the proposed visit of the Indian Chief Negotiator and the team be scheduled after each side has had the time to evaluate the latest developments and their implications. The meeting will be rescheduled at a mutually convenient date," the Commerce Ministry sources said, as quoted by the news agency.
The Indian team was scheduled to start the three-day meeting on February 23 in the US. Joint Secretary in the Commerce Ministry, Darpan Jain, is the chief negotiator of India for this agreement. Earlier this week, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal hadsaidthat the interim trade agreement with the United States is likely to come into effect in April. Prime Minister Modi and US President Trump announced the finalisation of the interim trade deal on February 7.
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They had said that the US and India have reached a framework for an interim agreement on trade, with Trump issuing an executive order removing the 25 per cent punitive tariffs imposed on India for its purchases of Russian oil. Under the trade deal, Washington had annouced to charge a reduced reciprocal tariff on New Delhi, lowering it from 25 per cent to 18 per cent.
The Supreme Court struck down Trump's far-reaching global tariffs on Friday. The court ruled 6-3 that he had exceeded his authority in imposing broad tariffs under emergency powers.
Following the Supreme Court's verdict, Trump signed a proclamation titled 'Imposing a Temporary Import Surcharge to Address Fundamental International Payments Problems', and said that he was imposing a "temporary import surcharge of 10 per cent ad valorem" on articles imported into the US, effective February 24.
On Saturday, Trump said that he was raising the global tariff to 15 per cent. Trump said in a social media post on that he was making the decision "Based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday," by the US Supreme Court. He said that the tariffs were "legally tested."
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