The Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Thursday said it is “carefully examining the implications of the various measures” related to reciprocal tariffs announced by the United States a day earlier.

On Wednesday, the US announced that it was imposing reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries, including a 26% “discounted” levy on India. These will take effect on April 9.

US President Donald Trump announced a 10% minimum tariff on most goods imported into his country, which will take effect on Saturday. Washington also imposed a 25% tariff on all foreign-made automobiles, which will go into effect on Thursday.

The ministry said in India’s first response to the tariff announcement that the US president had issued an executive order imposing additional duties ranging from 10% to 50% on imports from all trading partners. “The additional duty on India as per the Annex I of the Executive Order is 27%,” it stated.

The ministry said it was engaging with all stakeholders, including those in the Indian industry and exporters, and assessing the situation. “The department is also studying the opportunities that may arise due to this new development in the US trade policy,” it said.

Trump had repeatedly said that he intended to impose a reciprocal tax on India, among others, citing high tariffs the countries impose on foreign goods. He has already imposed tariffs on a range of products from Canada, Mexico and China.

The tariffs have led to concerns of a broader trade war that could disrupt the global economy and drive up inflation.

On Wednesday, Trump said it was “Liberation Day, a long-awaited moment” for the US. “April 2nd, 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to make America wealthy again,” said the US president at the White House.

He added: “India, very, very tough. Very, very tough. The prime minister [Narendra Modi] just left. He’s a great friend of mine, but I said, ‘You’re a friend of mine, but you’re not treating us right. They charge us 52%. You have to understand, we charge them almost nothing for years and years and decades, and it was only seven years ago, when I came in, that we started with China’.”

The tariffs imposed on India are lower than those against competitors China (34%), Vietnam (46%), Thailand (72%) and Indonesia (32%). The Trump administration imposed 20% levies on the European Union, 24% on Japan, 37% on Bangladesh, 37% on Serbia and 48% on Laos.

The United Kingdom and Singapore are among the countries that will face a baseline tariff of 10%.

The US did not impose new tariffs on Russia.

On Thursday, the ministry noted that Modi and Trump had announced “Mission 500” on February 13, which was aimed at doubling “the bilateral trade to US $500 billion by 2030”.

The statement said: “Accordingly, discussions are ongoing between Indian and US trade teams for the expeditious conclusion of a mutually beneficial, multi-sectoral Bilateral Trade Agreement…We remain in touch with the Trump Administration on these issues and expect to take them forward in the coming days.”

On March 10, New Delhi told a parliamentary panel that it had not yet made any commitments to Washington on tariffs and sought time until September to address the matter.

Despite this, Trump had claimed on Monday that India had agreed to drop the tariffs it imposes on his country “very substantially”.

This is not the first time Trump had made such a claim. On March 19, Trump said in an interview to Breitbart News that he believes India will likely reduce the tariffs it imposes on American goods.

This came three days after Trump claimed that India had agreed to “cut their tariffs way down”.

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