India’s move to raise import duty from 30 percent to 120 percent on 28 items including apples, almonds and walnuts being imported from United States of America has brought cheer on the faces of fruit growers as well as traders in Kashmir as they believe the decision would widen market share of the locally produced fruits in the country and will bring better returns.
India on Sunday imposed higher tariffs on 28 items importedfrom the US, in retaliation to Washington’s recent withdrawal of tradeprivileges for New Delhi.
The increased duties apply to products including almonds,apples and walnuts, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs said.
India would “implement the imposition of retaliatory dutieson 28 specified goods originating in or exported from [the] USA”, it said in anotification
The trade tension comes despite the efforts from Washingtonto boost ties with India as a counterweight to China, and assertions made byboth US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi abouttheir good relationship.
India is the second largest market for Washington apples,and of late it has eaten away the share of Kashmiri apples in Indian markets,as it has not been able to compete with the quality and post production managementof the US fruits.
However with increase in tariff rates, the local fruitgrowers and dealers believe that USA apples will become out of bounds forcommon people in India which would help Kashmiri apples and walnuts.
“It is a good move for Kashmiri apples, of late we havewitnessed that there was huge increase in import of USA apples to Indianmarkets which definitely had an impact on our business. With hike in importtariffs, imported apple prices would increase thus making it costlier forpeople,” said chairman All Kashmir Fruit Growers Cum Dealers Union, BashirAhmad Basheer.
He said similarly walnut and almond growers will also getbenefited by this move. “USA walnuts and almonds had eaten away our market,even in Kashmir it had made inroads.”
Chairman, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industries, KashmirChapter, Mushtaq Ahmad Chaya welcomed the decision of Indian government to hiketariff on apples, walnuts and almonds imported from USA.
“Horticulture is the mainstay of our economy, this decisionwill help in a long way to ensure good return for our farmers who aredistressed lot due to host of issues,” he said adding that “government mustinitiate more steps to promote local production which would in turn helpfarmers and growers across Jammu and Kashmir”.
Kashmir imports more than 19 lakh metric tonnes of apples toIndian markets each year.
The stage for the row was set last year after Washingtonrefused to exempt India from higher steel and aluminium tariffs, in keepingwith Trump’s decision to act against countries with which it has a large tradedeficit.
India responded by saying it would raise import taxes on aslew of US goods.
But it delayed raising tariffs several times, hoping fornegotiation to tackle the sticky trade issue.
However, Trump’s decision this month to strip New Delhi ofits preferential trade status appears to have prompted the latest Indian move.
According to the new tariffs, import duty on walnut has beenhiked to 120 percent from 30 percent and on chickpeas and lentils it has beenraised to 70 percent from 30 per cent currently.
The trade row is likely to be taken up when Trump and Modimeet at the G20 summit on June 28-29 in Osaka.
US goods and services trade with India stood at an estimated$142.1 billion in 2018. The US trade deficit with India was $24.2 billion,according to official data.
Washington is already engaged in a full-blown trade war withIndia’s regional rival China.