Business
India-US talks continue as tariffs loom | The Express Tribune
MUMBAI:
India’s foreign minister said on Saturday that trade negotiations with Washington are continuing, but there are lines that New Delhi needs to defend, just days before hefty additional US tariffs are due to hit.
Indian goods face additional US tariffs of up to 50%, among the highest imposed by Washington, due to its increased purchases of Russian oil. A 25% tariff has already come into effect, while the remaining 25% is set to be enforced from August 27.
A planned visit by US trade negotiators to New Delhi from August 25-29 has been called off, dashing hopes that the levies may be lowered or postponed.
“We have some redlines in the negotiations, to be maintained and defended,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said at an Economic Times forum event in New Delhi, singling out the interests of the country’s farmers and small producers.
India-US trade talks collapsed earlier this year due to India not agreeing to open its vast agricultural and dairy sectors. Bilateral trade between the world’s largest and fifth-largest economies is worth over $190 billion.
“It is our right to make decisions in our ‘national interest’,” Jaishankar said.
Analysts at Capital Economics said on Friday that if the full US tariffs come into force and stick, the hit to India’s economic growth would be 0.8 percentage points both this year and next.
“The longer-term harm could be even greater as a high tariff could puncture India’s appeal as a global manufacturing hub.”
The Indian minister described US President Donald Trump’s policy announcements as “unusual”.
“We have not had a US president who conducts his foreign policy so publicly as the current one and (it) is a departure from the traditional way of conducting business with the world,” Jaishankar said.
He also said Washington’s concern over India’s Russian oil purchases was not being applied to other major buyers such as China and the European Union.
“If the argument is oil, then there are (other) big buyers. If the argument is who is trading more (with Russia), then there are bigger traders,” he said.
Russia-European trade is bigger than India-Russia trade, he added.
The minister also said India’s purchases of Russian oil had not been raised in earlier trade talks with the US before the public announcement of tariffs.
A few days earlier, India suspended an 11% import duty on cotton until September 30, in a move seen as a signal to Washington that New Delhi is willing to address US concerns on agricultural tariffs, while also easing pressure on its garment industry.
The temporary suspension, announced late on Monday, could benefit US cotton growers and provide relief to India’s apparel sector, which faces tariffs of nearly 60% on shipments to the United States from later this month.
President Donald Trump earlier this month announced an extra tariff on Indian goods as punishment for New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil, doubling the total duty to 50% on US imports of Indian goods from later this month.
Indian exports had previously faced levies of 0-5%, with duties on some textiles ranging between 9% and 13% before Trump raised tariffs in April.
Business
Rupee rebounds from record low: Currency rises 128 paise to 93.57 against US dollar – The Times of India
Rupee opened the week in green, recovering sharply in early trade after regulatory intervention aimed at curbing banks’ currency exposure. The currency climbed to 93.57 against the US dollar, on Monday, gaining 128 paise from its previous close, after opening at 93.62 in the interbank foreign exchange market. This comes days after the currency had hit a record low of 94.85 on Friday, following a steep fall of 89 paise. The turnaround follows a directive issued by the Reserve Bank of India on March 27, 2026, which placed a cap of $100 million on the Net Open Position (NOP-INR) that banks can hold overnight. Lenders have been asked to comply with the new limit by April 10. Market participants said the move is prompting banks to reassess their positions, particularly those with long dollar holdings in the onshore market. As these positions are reduced, dollar sales are expected to increase, lending short-term support to the rupee. “As banks begin adjusting their positions, they are likely to sell dollars in the market, which can temporarily support the rupee. This creates a phase of relief, driven by position unwinding, not by a major shift in fundamentals, but still meaningful in the near term,” Amit Pabari, Managing Director at CR Forex Advisors told PTI. Even so, the broader environment remains challenging for the Indian currency. The dollar continues to draw strength from safe-haven demand, keeping the dollar index above the 100 mark and restricting any sustained appreciation in the rupee. The dollar index was last seen marginally lower by 0.06% at 100.09. At the same time, rising crude oil prices are adding to pressure, with Brent crude trading 2.16% higher at $115 per barrel in futures. Geopolitical tensions have played a key role in pushing oil prices higher amid concerns over supply disruptions. “For India, this is critical. Being a major oil importer, higher oil prices increase dollar demand, which directly puts pressure on the rupee,” Pabari said. He added that despite the current relief, the rupee’s outlook remains sensitive to global factors such as oil price movements, geopolitical developments and the strength of the US dollar. Dalal Street also reflected the cautious mood, with the BSE Sensex dropping 1,191.24 points to 72,391.98 in early deals, and the Nifty 50 declining 349.45 points to 22,470.15. Foreign institutional investors were also seen pulling back, having sold equities worth Rs 4,367.30 crore on a net basis on Friday, as per exchange data.
MUMBAI: RBI has placed consumer empowerment through portable bank accounts and cross-border efficiency at the centre of its Payments Vision 2028, signalling a new focus to improving user experience and reducing friction in money movement.While customers can freely open accounts with any bank, savings accounts are considered ‘sticky’ because of multiple standing instruction to send and receive money into the specified account. RBI’s work around this stickiness is a Payments Switching Service where all standing instructions are centralised. This centralised interface will allow customers to view and migrate all payment mandates, both incoming and outgoingreducing dependence on individual banks making accounts portable.A key thrust is on making cross-border payments faster, cheaper and more accessible. The central bank plans a comprehensive review of the ecosystem to identify regulatory, operational and technological bottlenecks, aligning domestic systems with global standards shaped by the G20.Proposed changes aim to lower entry barriers for firms, promote innovation and reduce delays in cross-border fund transfers, even as India has been signing agreements with other countries to link domestic fast payments systems and enable CBDC acceptance.
NEW DELHI: WTO talks in Cameroon are deadlocked over a moratorium on e-commerce with the US seeking a long freeze on countries for levying tax on digital downloads and streaming, while India is so far unwilling to agree to this period.Starting from two years, India has indicated its willingness to go up to four, with the WTO draft proposing a moratorium until June 2031, two persons familiar with the ministerial level talks told TOI.But before ministers move to that the US and Brazil have to reach common ground on farm sector liberalisation. Talks between the US and Brazil are currently underway before ministers move to the issue of e-commerce. Here, the African countries have also demanded support and technical assistance before a final text can be agreed to.For over 25 years, members of the WTO have upheld a rule — no customs duties on electronic transmissions. While India has used it as a bargaining chip at every ministerial meeting.For India, the big win is managing to keep investment facilitation for development out of the WTO framework despite standing alone at the end. It has demanded “guardrails” against using plurilaterals, which are agreements between a select group of member nations. India has indicated its willingness to support discussions on reforms but it is the US which is stalling issues despite in the past signalling that WTO wasn’t moving anywhere.Talks are expected to conclude in the next few hours as ministers have started leaving Cameroon and the ministerial meeting is not going into extra time.
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