NEW DELHI – India and the United States are understood to have decided to reschedule a key meeting of their top negotiators over the interim bilateral trade agreement so as to study the implications of the American Supreme Court judgment striking down the tariff hikes by the Trump Administration.
A three-day meeting between teams headed by the chief trade negotiators on the two sides was scheduled to take place in the US on February 23.
Sources said the Indian team of negotiators will now visit Washington to give the final touches to the trade deal after officials in both India and the US have studied the latest developments following the US Supreme Court judgment. A decision on fresh dates of the meeting of the negotiators on the two sides will be taken in mutual consultations.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday raised the global tariffs from 10 per cent to 15 per cent after the big setback in the Supreme Court on Friday.
Taking to Truth Social, Trump wrote, “Based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday, after MANY months of contemplation, by the United States Supreme Court, please let this statement serve to represent that I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10% Worldwide Tariff on Countries, many of which have been “ripping” the U.S. off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level.”
The US Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s reciprocal tariff measures, ruling that the executive branch exceeded its constitutional authority by using emergency powers to levy broad import duties.
ANN/The Statesman
