Exporters Tell USTR to Push India on Non-Tariff Barriers, Tariffs

“The U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum set a goal in 2014 to grow bilateral trade volumes to $500 billion. That goal still has not been met,” Brian Pomper, executive director of the Alliance for Trade Enforcement, said. “Addressing onerous trade barriers in India can help to realize the potential of this trading relationship, benefiting both countries’ economies and strengthening the overall relationship.”

The group, which includes pharmaceutical, medical devices, software and movie industry trade groups, as well as the National Foreign Trade Council and the U.S. Council for International Business, said India imposes regulatory and other non-tariff barriers in numerous sectors.

Price controls on imported medical devices have been an irritant between the two countries for four years, and the groups said a trade margin rationalization approach would be acceptable in that area.

U.S. chemical exporters are saying that India's proposed regulations are "largely inconsistent and incompatible with U.S. approaches, including a risk-based regulatory approach, and would impose higher upfront compliance costs on both domestic manufacturers and U.S. chemical manufacturers seeking to export to India."

The seven-page letter also says that past talks did not make enough progress on India's high tariffs. "India has long maintained high applied tariffs on a broad range of products, including automobiles, textiles, distilled spirits, pharmaceuticals and rubber and a wide range of agricultural products such as apples, vegetable oils and fruit juices. These high tariffs are particularly problematic in the agriculture sector, where India maintains the highest average agriculture tariffs in the world (averaging 113 percent). Moreover, India regularly uses, and adjusts, tariffs as an industrial policy tool to protect domestic companies in selected industries, such as information technology products, pharmaceuticals and medical devices."