USITC Report Finds Very High Tariffs Substantially Impede U.S. Farm Exports to India

In its report India: Effects of Tariffs and Nontariff Measures on U.S. Agricultural Exports, the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) found that U.S. farmers and food manufacturers lose millions of dollars each year in lost sales to India because of high tariffs and a wide array of nontariff measures (NTMs) that substantially raise the cost or effectively prohibit U.S. agricultural exports there. The report noted, inter alia, that the United States-the world's leading agricultural exporter by value-only exported 6 percent ($497 million) of India's imports, and that Indian WTO bound tariff rates on agricultural products (averaging 114 percent) are among the highest in the world. In addition, Indian intellectual property rights (IPR) policies reportedly are of critical importance to U.S. seed firms operating in India, but U.S. firms in most other agricultural sectors do not identify IPR as a significant trade or investment barrier.

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