India is still world’s highest tariff major economy, says US ambassador Eric Garcetti

Garcetti’s remarks, made at an event organised by the US-India Business Council (USIBC), came against the backdrop of US president-elect Donald Trump’s assertion that he intends to impose reciprocal tariffs on India because of the country’s high tariffs.

“The US could say you [India] might be down 95% from what tariffs used to be, but it’s still the highest tariff major economy in the world, here in India. And too often, there are barriers that take too long and are too arbitrary, and everything from labour to land, as we have too in the US,” Garcetti said.

Garcetti pointed to the need for India and the US to jointly tackle the issue of tariffs to grow trade.

“We need, together, to lower tariffs, not to see them go up. We need, together, to increase trade and to make it more fair and equal. We need to, together, make sure that there’s training and talent that meets the needs of companies on both sides of the Indo-Pacific,” he said.

Garcetti said the two countries have to protect trademarks and intellectual property, and ensure transportation and infrastructure “exists for India to reach its goals more quickly”, since that is in “the American interest, and vice versa”.

He added, “So let us renew our commitment to being more ambitious, to not settling for what is, and what is good, but reaching for what can be and what will be great.”

Garcetti noted that Trump had spoken about tariffs needing to be “done fairly” as recently as Tuesday, and called for “honest conversations” on the matter. “I think it’s helpful for us to speak bluntly, but let us use that as a starting point to negotiate much more deeply than we do,” he said.

At the same time, he noted that India and the US had increased two-way trade 10-fold since 2001 and the US was India’s largest trade partner.

Garcetti said the two sides must “recommit ourselves to a mutual path of trust and transparencies”.