Business News

New Delhi: Emerging economies such as India, Brazil and Vietnam, which impose tariff on American imports higher than what the US levies on them, face a high risk of reciprocal tariffs, global ratings agency Fitch said.“Brazil, India, Thailand, Malaysia, South Africa, Turkey and, on a simple average tariff basis, Vietnam and Indonesia, impose notably higher tariffs on exports from the US relative to tariffs imposed by the US on imports from these countries,” it said.US President Donald Trump has threatened with his reciprocal tariffs announcement on April 2 against trading partners he says have been “ripping off” the country by imposing high levies.As per the Fitch report, the tariffs in these economies were higher, both on a simple and trade-weighted average basis.“On a simple average basis, the highest differentials are in Brazil, India and Turkey,” Fitch said.The tariff differential between the US and India was 3.8% on a Weighted Average MFN basis and 8.7% on a simple average basis.Among categories, tariffs charged by the US were higher on textiles. Food products had the highest tariff differential of 40% between India and the US, followed by animal products, stone and glass, from a trade-weighted basis.Six of the largest trading partners of the US- Canada, Mexico, Australia, Chile, Japan and South Korea maintain free trade agreements with the it, significantly lowering bilateral applied tariff rates and effectively reducing the aggregate differential to minimal levels, according to the report.