May 13, 2025- (Bloomberg) — India has proposed levies on some US goods in response to Washington’s duties on steel and aluminum, marking its first retaliation against President Donald Trump’s tariff regime, even as the two countries move closer to finalizing a trade deal.
The South Asian nation has informed the World Trade Organization that the US tariffs on these metals are “safeguard measures” – trade restrictions – that will adversely impact India’s trade, according to a notification on Monday.
New Delhi reserves its right to “suspend concessions or other obligations” as a counter measure to the US duties, the notification said, citing WTO rules.
The move marks India’s first retaliatory action during Trump’s second term. Just last month, even as the US president announced a flurry of new tariffs, New Delhi had signaled it would refrain from any tit-for-tat moves, choosing instead to prioritize negotiations toward a bilateral trade deal. Both countries aim to finalize the agreement by this fall.
“India’s latest WTO action comes at a delicate moment,” said Ajay Srivastava, founder of New Delhi-based think-tank Global Trade Research Initiative. “New Delhi and Washington are exploring a broader free trade agreement, and this retaliation could cast a shadow over negotiations.”
According to the WTO notification, India said that Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs would impact $7.6 billion worth of Indian exports, on which the duty collection would be $1.91 billion.
“Accordingly, India’s proposed suspension of concessions would result in an equivalent amount of duty collected from products originating in the United States,” it said, without specifying the commodities impacted.
Early this year, Trump slapped 25% levies on all US imports of steel and aluminum effective March 12 as part of his plans to reshape trade ties with the rest of the world. Indian exporters at the time had urged New Delhi to counter Washington’s tariffs.
In accordance with WTO rules, India had requested consultation with the US in April regarding the hike. However, Washington declined, asserting that the tariffs were imposed on national security grounds and did not qualify as safeguard measures.
Pankaj Chadha, chairman of the Engineering Exports Promotion Council, welcomed India’s retaliation as a “positive development” and said that the move may help his industry get some exemption from US tariffs.
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India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal is expected to visit the US on May 17-20 for trade talks with officials from the Trump administration. According to a person familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity as discussions are still private, India’s planned retaliatory tariffs on US goods will now be part of the negotiations.
Shift in Tone
During Trump’s first term, India had imposed higher customs duties on 28 US goods in response to Washington’s 2019 decision to end trade concessions on $5.7 billion of products.
So far, India had adopted a conciliatory approach during Trump’s second term. Earlier in the year, New Delhi overhauled its tariff regime, reducing import duties on some 8,500 industrial items, including on prominent American goods like bourbon whiskey and high-end motorcycles made by Harley-Davidson Inc., satisfying a longtime grievance of the US president.
New Delhi’s WTO action, however, signals a tougher stance, according to Srivastava. “India’s move reflects a broader shift: a willingness to assert itself within global trade rules to protect its economic interests,” he said in a note on Tuesday.
Hours before the notification, the US had agreed to significantly reduce tariffs on China following Beijing’s decision to hold its ground against Trump.
The retaliation also comes the same week Indian officials have pushed back against Trump’s suggestion that trade with the US was used as a bargaining chip in a just-concluded ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
“If you stop it, we’re doing trade. If you don’t stop it, we’re not going to do any trade,” Trump said at the White House on Monday, referring to discussions with the two sides.
On Tuesday, May 13, India said that there was no reference to trade in these talks. “There were conversations between Indian and US leaders on the evolving military situation,” Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters at a press briefing in New Delhi. “The issue of trade did not come up in any of these discussions.”
