Russia to slap duties on US goods after higher metals tariffs

India takes similar action as Modi speaks out against protectionism

MOSCOW — Russia will soon impose duties on imports of United States goods in response to US tariffs on steel and aluminum, Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin said on Tuesday.

“There is road-building machinery and a number of other items that Russia imports,” Oreshkin said when asked to specify the list of goods that Moscow plans to levy tariffs on.

The move follows a request from Russian businesses that were hit by US sanctions to the Russian state to help them to overcome increased financial and economic difficulties.

Deripaska, who controls GAZ, Russia’s largest producer of road-building machinery, such as asphalt placers, has already asked the Russian state to purchase some output from his company RUSAL, in an effort to alleviate the pain inflicted by US sanctions.

Oreshkin said that the government had no plans to impose import duties on US-made medicine. That followed a wave of discontent among Russians over the proposal by Russian lawmakers to ban a wide range of US goods and services, from medicine to software.

The new measures will serve a “balancing” function, Oreshkin said, after Washington in March imposed tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, in a move mainly aimed at curbing imports from China.

“Russia is using its rights at the World Trade Organization and is introducing balancing measures on imports from the United States,” Oreshkin said.

It will take several days to compile the list of the US goods and the duties will not affect Russia’s macroeconomic indicators, Oreshkin was quoted by TASS news agency as saying.

“These measures will begin to be implemented in the form of additional import duties on American goods in the near future,” Oreshkin said.

“They will only concern products that have equivalents on the Russian market and will not have a negative effect on macroeconomic indicators,” he said.

According to official Russian customs data, last year the country exported 8.9 million tons of rolled steel products worth $3.3 billion and 3.5 million tons of aluminum worth nearly $5 billion.

There is roadbuilding machinery and a number of other items that Russia imports.”

Maxim Oreshkin,

Reaction of India

Meanwhile, India has announced tit-for-tat increased tariffs on these items imported from the US, following a US decision to increase duty on aluminum and steel from India in March.

Motorcycles, apples, chocolates, almonds and shrimp — these are some of the items caught in the crossfire of a bubbling trade dispute between the world’s two largest democracies.

The Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry notified the World Trade Organization on June 13 that it would hike tariffs on 30 American goods by up to 50 percent.

With the counter import duties, India now expects to recoup the estimated $240 million it has to pay for its steel and aluminum exports due to higher US tariffs.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent out a strong message against protectionism at the recent Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. He argued that “solutions cannot be found behind walls of protection”, and asserted that India stands for an open and stable international trade regime.

Rajat Kathuria, director and chief executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, believes India’s titfor-tat move results from “partly feeling wronged by an action that is sort of unjustified” and a growing confidence that comes with a stronger economy.

“India today is a market that other countries are looking at as a large enough market to be present in. Its bargaining power in some sense is much more than it was earlier,” he said.