<p>New Delhi: The signing of the bilateral trade agreement between India and the US, which was supposed to be done in March, has been put on hold due to America's changing tariff architecture, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agarwal said on Monday.</p>.<p>“The US deal was to be signed in March. When we had said this, the Supreme Court judgment on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs had not come,” said Agarwal, adding that the issue of the so-called reciprocal tariff imposed by the Donald Trump administration became irrelevant following the court judgment.</p>.<p>Agarwal indicated that India would sign a trade agreement with the US only when there is clarity on the <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/us-tariffs">US tariffs</a>.</p>.<p>“Any deal that we sign has to be around a tariff structure or comparative advantage that India gets in the US market. The US is working on a tariff architecture. When they can create the pathway, that juncture will be right to sign a deal,” he said.</p>.India hasn't engaged in bilateral talks with US: MEA on situation around Strait of Hormuz.<p>“Actual signing, to my mind, will be done when the new architecture of tariffs will be created by the US. We will wait for tariff clarity first,” he added.</p>.<p>India and the United States had released a framework for a bilateral trade agreement a few days before the US Supreme Court struck down Trump’s sweeping tariffs imposed under the IEEPA.</p>.<p>Following the Supreme Court’s judgment, the Trump administration came out with a new 10 per cent tariff last month, which will remain valid for 150 days.</p>.<p>The US administration has also launched an investigation into what it calls “unfair” trade policies of 16 leading economies, including India. This may allow the Trump administration to impose new tariffs.</p>.<p>The Indian official comment comes a day after Malaysia walked out of its trade deal with the US, which was signed in October last year.</p>.<p>Malaysia has become the first country to walk out of a US reciprocal tariff deal. Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) founder Ajay Srivastava said Malaysia’s move could encourage several other US trading partners to reconsider similar deals.</p>.India examining legal impact of US industrial capacity investigations.<p>Two factors are likely to push more countries to walk away from trade deals signed with the United States under the reciprocal tariff strategy. First, the deals have lost their economic value after the US Supreme Court ruling. Second, trade pressure from the United States continues even after agreements are signed.</p>.<p>“For many governments, this combination raises a fundamental question: why maintain politically costly concessions if the same tariff treatment applies without a deal and trade pressure continues anyway? Malaysia’s decision to declare its agreement void may be followed by many other countries,” said Srivastava.</p>
<p>New Delhi: The signing of the bilateral trade agreement between India and the US, which was supposed to be done in March, has been put on hold due to America's changing tariff architecture, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agarwal said on Monday.</p>.<p>“The US deal was to be signed in March. When we had said this, the Supreme Court judgment on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs had not come,” said Agarwal, adding that the issue of the so-called reciprocal tariff imposed by the Donald Trump administration became irrelevant following the court judgment.</p>.<p>Agarwal indicated that India would sign a trade agreement with the US only when there is clarity on the <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/us-tariffs">US tariffs</a>.</p>.<p>“Any deal that we sign has to be around a tariff structure or comparative advantage that India gets in the US market. The US is working on a tariff architecture. When they can create the pathway, that juncture will be right to sign a deal,” he said.</p>.India hasn't engaged in bilateral talks with US: MEA on situation around Strait of Hormuz.<p>“Actual signing, to my mind, will be done when the new architecture of tariffs will be created by the US. We will wait for tariff clarity first,” he added.</p>.<p>India and the United States had released a framework for a bilateral trade agreement a few days before the US Supreme Court struck down Trump’s sweeping tariffs imposed under the IEEPA.</p>.<p>Following the Supreme Court’s judgment, the Trump administration came out with a new 10 per cent tariff last month, which will remain valid for 150 days.</p>.<p>The US administration has also launched an investigation into what it calls “unfair” trade policies of 16 leading economies, including India. This may allow the Trump administration to impose new tariffs.</p>.<p>The Indian official comment comes a day after Malaysia walked out of its trade deal with the US, which was signed in October last year.</p>.<p>Malaysia has become the first country to walk out of a US reciprocal tariff deal. Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) founder Ajay Srivastava said Malaysia’s move could encourage several other US trading partners to reconsider similar deals.</p>.India examining legal impact of US industrial capacity investigations.<p>Two factors are likely to push more countries to walk away from trade deals signed with the United States under the reciprocal tariff strategy. First, the deals have lost their economic value after the US Supreme Court ruling. Second, trade pressure from the United States continues even after agreements are signed.</p>.<p>“For many governments, this combination raises a fundamental question: why maintain politically costly concessions if the same tariff treatment applies without a deal and trade pressure continues anyway? Malaysia’s decision to declare its agreement void may be followed by many other countries,” said Srivastava.</p>