US has threatened to increase import duties on a range of imports

New York: June 9.
In a tit-for-tat move, the United States has threatened to increase import duties on a range of imports, from prawns and Basmati rice tofurniture and jewelry, from India, in retaliation against New Delhi imposing Digital Services Tax on tech giants.

On June 2, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced the plan for the 25 percent increase in the tariffs on 26 items from India, from December. This came in retaliation for a two per cent tax from April 2020 on earnings in the
country by foreign technology and e-commerce companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google by India.

The Trump administration had opposed the move and the Biden administration has decided to continue with the policy. Tai’s office said: “India's DST is unreasonable or discriminatory and burdens or restricts US commerce.” The Biden administration also threatened to increase tariffs on imports from five other countries, the UK, Austria, Italy, Spain and Turkey over
their DST.