Specialists have underlined that a number of of India’s import tips are in strains with home financial wants and social ethos, at the same time as a brand new report by the US Commerce Consultant has flagged considerations round a number of tariff and non tariff limitations imposed by India.
“Lots of the proposed adjustments—in areas like agriculture, digital governance, and public well being—pose critical dangers to India’s capability to guard its small farmers, keep meals security, uphold deeply rooted social norms, and safe its digital future,” mentioned Ajay Srivastava, founder, World Commerce Analysis Initiative in a report. It additional underlined that India won’t commerce away its coverage house, financial safety, or public welfare to please international pursuits. “Reforms should serve the individuals of India—not simply the revenue margins of international firms,” advocated the report.
For example, one of many points raised within the 2025 Nationwide Commerce Estimate (NTE) Report of the USTR is round India “onerous” necessities on dairy imports. It has identified that India requires that dairy merchandise meant for meals be derived from animals that haven’t consumed feeds containing inner organs, blood meal, or tissues of ruminant or porcine origin and that exporting international locations certify to those circumstances, which lack a discernable animal well being or human well being justification.
“This requirement, together with the current dairy well being certificates necessities, new facility registration necessities, and excessive tariff charges, continues to hamper market entry for US milk and dairy product exports to India, one of many largest dairy markets on the planet,” the USTR report highlighted.
Nonetheless, the GTRI report identified that India might by no means enable such a leisure. “The US sees this as too strict, however think about consuming butter comprised of the milk of a cow that was fed meat and blood from one other cow. India might by no means enable that,” it underlined.
Equally, the US has criticised India’s strict import licensing for remanufactured items and medical gadgets. In 2024, India stopped issuing licenses for refurbished U.S. medical gadgets, affecting exports. “Whereas the US sees this as pointless pink tape, India worries that enjoyable the principles may result in a flood of secondhand or low-quality merchandise which may hurt customers and damage native industries,” the GTRI report famous.
One other occasion flagged by GTRI was how the US retains on pushing India to dismantle all laws in digital area to permit free stream of knowledge for the US tech corporations. “For the US, India’s digital commerce insurance policies are significantly contentious. The Reserve Financial institution of India mandates knowledge localisation, requiring international fee service suppliers to retailer Indian knowledge domestically,” mentioned the report. Whereas the US sees this as a burden on international cloud and fee companies, India defends it as needed for knowledge sovereignty and safety, it mentioned.
