India and the United States (US) should work together to lower tariffs to increase trade and make it fair and equal, US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti said on Thursday.

       Garcetti also called India the “highest tariff” major economy in the world.

       “… We need together to lower tariffs, not to see them go up. We need together to increase trade and to make it more fair and equal. We need to together make sure that there’s training and talent that meets the needs of companies on both sides of the Indo Pacific,” Garcetti said at an industry event organised by the US-India Business Council (USIBC).

       He also said that despite the difficulties on both sides, the India-US bilateral trade has witnessed a 10-fold increase.

       “... I think that as you hear, as recently as yesterday, President-elect Trump talked about trade and how tariffs need to be done fairly, let us have honest conversations. I think it’s helpful for us to speak bluntly, but let us use that as a starting point to negotiate much more deeply than we do,” he said.

       Earlier this week, Trump claimed that New Delhi charges a “lot of tariff”, and warned to impose reciprocal tariffs. Trump’s latest comment came in weeks after he vowed to hike tariffs on imported goods from Mexico, Canada and China. In fact, adding to what Trump said, his commerce secretary pick Howard Lutnick said “reciprocity” is something that is going to be a key topic for the Trump administration.

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