Indian exporters urged prime minister Narendra Modi at a meeting on Monday to provide immediate relief from the fallout of the US decision to impose 50 percent tariffs on Indian goods, people familiar with the matter said, as labor-intensive industries reel from the move.
The exporters, representing sectors from footwear and textiles to handicrafts and engineering, have demanded support through measures such as a temporary pause on loan repayments and subsidised interest rates, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public.
Apart from Modi, the meeting was attended by top officials, including the finance and commerce ministers, the people said. While no assurances were given, there is a sense that the exporters’ demands are receiving serious consideration, they added.
The prime minister’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The commerce and finance ministries didn’t respond to emailed queries.
While some officials in New Delhi have recently indicated that India is close to signing a trade deal with Washington, others — including the Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal — have sent mixed signals, saying the country won’t be pressured into finalising any agreement.
The uncertainty has fuelled a sense of desperation among Indian exporters, the people said.
US president Donald Trump has singled out India with a punitive 50 percent tariff, citing both its purchase of Russian oil and reluctance to extend greater market access to American goods. The tariffs are the highest in Asia, making Indian goods uncompetitive compared with manufacturing rivals like Vietnam and Bangladesh.
The US is India’s biggest export market, and the new levies are hitting labor-intensive sectors such as textiles, leather, footwear, and gems and jewelry the hardest. Exports to the US fell by nearly 12 percent in September from a year earlier, official Indian data showed, prompting calls for government relief. Economists from Citigroup Inc. estimate the tariffs could reduce India’s annual growth by 0.6–0.8 percentage points.
Indian exporters have also asked the central bank to allow a weaker rupee to offset some of the losses in business from US tariffs, Bloomberg News reported in September. The Reserve Bank of India is unlikely to follow through on such a move, though the rupee’s continued weakness has helped cushion some of the impact.
By Anup Roy, Shruti Srivastava
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