Top 30 US imports to India face tariffs of less than 10%: CBIC

Amidst the lurking US tariff action on major global economies by the Donald Trump administration, India’s finance ministry has said that the duty on top US imports to India is less than 10%. In the face of the looming global trade war under the Trump presidency, a study conducted by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) has found that tariff on the top 30 commodities imported to India from the US is in the range of zero to 10%.

“In the context of certain announcements made by the US, we conducted a study of the top 30 US imports to India. First is crude oil. There has been a drastic reduction in crude oil imports from the US in the last two to three years, as we started importing from Russia. The rate on crude is just Rs 1 per metric tonne. It is negligible and hardly anything,” CBIC Chairman Sanjay Kumar Agarwal told Fortune India.

“Similarly, the tariff on the import of coal—steam coal and coking coal from the US—is 2.5%, which is not too high. LNG is imported in huge quantity from the US and attracts a tariff of 5%,” Agarwal said.

“Diamonds—other than industrial diamonds—are imported either in cut and polished form or rough form from the US. The rate on diamond (rough form) is zero and in cut and polish form, it is 5%. Duty on aeroplanes imported from the US by scheduled operators is nil, while a 3% tariff is levied on imports by non-scheduled operators,” he said, adding that the tariff on chemicals and petrochemicals is at 7.5%.

“So, the rates on the US imports are not high,” Agarwal said, sans certain items that are not imported in large numbers such as high-end motorcycles. That too has been addressed in Budget 2024-25, he said.

One may recall that import duty on premium motorcycles that affected US brands such as Harley-Davidson had been a sticky issue during Trump 1.0. Budget 2025-26 has reduced customs duty on bikes with engine capacity of more than 1600 cc to 30% from 50%. “Since motorcycles with engine capacity of less than 1600 cc are manufactured in the country, the rates have been kept slightly higher at 40%,” Agarwal said.

Meanwhile, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the government is keeping a watch on the emerging US tariff-related uncertainties. During an interaction at the Open House with FM post-Budget event, Sitharaman said that India will respond to US tariffs closer to the actual announcements by America, while stressing the fact that the government is closely studying the emerging tariff situation along with the collateral impact of tariff actions on other nations like China and Mexico, among others.

“On the issue of US tariff-related uncertainties, until it is actually pronounced, one would not know what one has to face or work against. Till then, it is all about what if? Whether you are going to stand up to it, fight it, counter it, or negotiate through it, all of it will have to be tested when it is actually in our face,” Sitharaman had said.