New Delhi: A day after former J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti expressed concern over removal of additional duties on apples, walnuts, and almonds on local growers in J&K, the union government said that the move will not have an adverse impact as the basic duty of 50% will continue to protect domestic players.
This comes after India recently lifted additional duties on several American products, such as chickpeas, lentils, and apples. The retaliatory measures were imposed in 2019 in response to the United States’ decision to raise tariffs on specific steel and aluminum items.
Additional secretary of the commerce ministry Peeyush Kumar during a press briefing said that the government is monitoring imports and that it has sufficient policy space to support growers if there is any implication of the move adding that only the additional duty has been removed and the basic duty of 50% will continue.
“There were certain concerns that were being raised on the mutually agreed solution that has come in, more specific to seven-eight agriculture products, where we had levied additional import duties in retaliation with the steel and aluminium measures (imposed by the US),” Kumar said.
“So only the additional (import duty) has been removed. The most-favored-nation (MFN) or basic custom duty (BCD) rates of 50 percent are applicable. When we had raised the additional duty against America, it had a disadvantage. It had lost a certain market that was taken up by other countries including Iran, New Zealand, Chile, Turkey. By revoking this additional duty, the US will be able to compete with these markets,” he further added.
