FIEO worried over US tariff hikes on steel, aluminium
The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (
FIEO
) Saturday raised concerns about potential disruption to India's steel and aluminium exports to the US after President Donald Trump's announcement of a plan to double import tariffs on steel and aluminium to 50 per cent from 25 per cent. They particularly fear that the exports of value-added and finished steel products and auto-components, stainless steel pipes, and structural steel components could be hurt.
This potential increase comes under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act of 1962, a law that allows the president to impose tariffs or other trade restrictions if imports are deemed a threat to national security.
"These products are part of India's growing engineering exports, and higher duties could erode our price competitiveness in the American market," said
SC Ralhan
, president, FIEO.
India exported approximately $6.2 billion worth of steel and finished steel products to the US in FY25 including a wide range of engineered and fabricated steel components and about $0.86 billion of aluminium and its products. The US is among the top destinations for Indian steel manufacturers, who have been gradually increasing market share through high-quality production and competitive pricing.
Exporters said that though the decision stems from domestic policy considerations in the US, such sharp increases in tariffs send discouraging signals to global trade and manufacturing supply chains.
India and the US are negotiating a
Bilateral Trade Agreement
and exporters said that the move will complicate the talks.
"It's unfortunate that while BTA negotiations are going on, such unilateral tariff increases should be done. It only makes the work of the negotiators much more difficult and complicated. This will definitely impact the engineering exports, which are about $5 billion under this head," Pankaj Chadha, chairman EEPC India.
Chadha added that since the UK has been given exemption from Section 232, the same exemption should also be given with TRQ restrictions to India.
"We urge the government to take up the issue at the bilateral level to ensure that Indian exporters are not unfairly disadvantaged...as 25 per cent additional duty will be a huge burden, which is difficult to be absorbed by the exporter/importer," Ralhan said.
On March 8, 2018, the US promulgated safeguard measures on certain steel and aluminium articles by imposing 25 per cent and 10 per cent ad valorem tariffs respectively on such products with effect from March 23, 2018. On February 10, 2025, it revised the safeguard measures on imports of steel and aluminium articles, effective from March 12.
New Delhi said that the US failed to notify the WTO Committee about a decision to apply safeguard measures and as an affected member with significant export interest, it has requested consultations with Washington and proposed retaliation against the measure.
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Book excerpt: How the global story of caste activism began in Marathwada
CASTE BOOK , SURAJ YENGDE , SURAJ MILIND YENGDE , NEW BOOK , NONFICTION , INDIAN WRITING , INDIAN NONFICTION : Nanded, my hometown in Marathwada, has been home to one of the most radical forms of Dalit politics for over a hundred years. The Arya Samaj, the Hindu reform movement, established one of its earliest centres in Marathwada. Fearing Muslim influence on the subaltern castes, the Arya Samaj started to reconvert the latter by offering janeu, the sacred thread. However, this was not looked upon favourably by non-Dalit villagers, who by way of punishment forcibly tattooed Dalit converts with hot iron rods. Marathwada has also seen a significant presence of Sikhs, Nanded being an important holy place for the Sikh religion. The radical message of mystics and spiritual teachers like Kabir, Raidas, Nanak and Gobind was carried by practitioners of the Sikh faith. In particular, the vision of society that Kabir and Raidas preached found especial resonance among the Dalits of Marathwada. Also read: 'Something like Truth': Staging four monologues around truth and justice Following in this tradition, Marathwada Dalits carved out for themselves a political space, whose potential for mobilization and receptivity to radical ideas were noticed by B.R. Ambedkar. Issues around land, education and sovereignty were all highly politicized in Marathwada. Those who rejected their oppression as lower castes looked for ways of fighting back. To them, Ambedkar-led politics seemed like a promising avenue. In particular, Mahars (a caste of Dalits) in my region gave their allegiance to Ambedkar. Though Ambedkar was yet to visit them, they had heard about him and his voluminous writings. He came from their caste-community and had a national as well as international appeal. Dalit leaders from the wider Telugu-, Marathi- and Kannada-speaking regions, such as Bhagya Reddy Varma, B.S. Venkat Rao and B. Shyam Sundar, eventually joined Ambedkar and worked under his leadership. My district and region were one of many centres of radical politics. Nanded's representative to India's independent parliament in 1957 belonged to a crop of radical Dalit politicians: Harihar Rao Sonule was our statement of our collective belief in constitutional promise. He was one of the early batch of Dalit MPs from the All India Scheduled Caste Federation who were intent on gaining rights for Dalits in the newly independent country. In our house in Janta Colony, Ambedkar Nagar, Nanded, my father listened to the morning Marathi news on DD Sahyadri—a government-owned satellite TV station. We had a black-and-white 14-inch television set made by a Videocon company. Each morning the same ritual was followed as I prepared for school. One day in 1997 my father held me and made me watch the TV: Kofi Annan was being elected as the secretary general of the United Nations Organization. My father called it Oono—UNO. He wanted me to register that a Black man had ascended to the topmost position of an inter-governmental body, never mind that Annan originally came from the crop of Ghanaian elites. My father perhaps wanted me to see that the UN and other international bodies could not only be accessible to native elites the world over, but could be a space even of Dalit politics. When the Taliban blew up statues of the Buddha, he and his associates protested by petitioning the UN—in a letter written in Marathi. Years later, when I was an intern at the UN's human rights office in Geneva, I was dismayed by its sheer inability to provide nonpolitical solutions to issues of the day…. In the United States, the Dalit cause was taken up by the coordinated efforts of professional class Dalits who had settled there. Their activism began with protests against atrocities within India and led to attempts to hold the Indian state accountable by placing the issue of caste on the agendas of US political and policy circles. Later, activists like Laxmi Berwa and Yogesh Varhade took the UN route that their predecessors like B.R. Ambedkar, N. Rajbhoj and Bhagwan Das had followed. Solidarity represents one way of connecting the Dalit movement with a larger cause. But the desire for international solidarity did not significantly influence the activities of Dalits in India. Their work evolved in response to the radical shifts of Cold War-era politics. The movement was split between left and right. Some aligned with a nativist theory of liberation, while others drew on the left's internationalism. One faction was led by Namdeo Dhasal, the well-known leftist Panther. Left-wing savarna scholars wrote extensively about Dhasal and promoted his image. Raja Dhale, on the other hand, who led the other faction, was primarily known to circles of academics and writers because of his distance from leftist politics. Later he became so disillusioned with the Panthers' leadership that he left and pursued a career in a political party run by Ambedkar's grandson, only to end up dismayed by it. A vast number of Dalit Mahars who identified with Ambedkar and Buddhism embraced Dhale. My father was an associate of his in Nanded and was particularly interested in Dhale's literary activities. They remained friends. My name Surudhay—kindhearted—was given me by Dhale. However, because it was often mispronounced, I shortened the name to Suraj. When I was a student leader in Nanded, I invited Dhale to visit the university and deliver a lecture. He came and the old cadres packed the hall. He spoke but it wasn't an impressive speech. When my father passed away, Dhale paid a visit to my home. I was in South Africa; I rang him to thank him for the visit. In his usual way, Dhale said that he had not done anything extraordinary. 'Milind was my associate, and I paid a visit" was his response. Dhale was known to call a spade a spade. He restricted himself to the activism of literature. He read many books. Whenever my father visited Mumbai, he would seek an audience with Dhale. I recall once we spent an entire day in Vikhroli, the area where Dhale lived. Years later when I was studying to become a scholar, I sought an audience with Dhale. He refused. He said that, like me, he had little time available; it was better that we should not impose ourselves on each other's time. His response made me feel he had become rude and bitter as an old man. A few years later when I spent about eight months in India, I realized why he had spoken in this way. In India, a meeting can easily last several hours. Dhale was also in a hurry to finish what he was writing—as he indicated to me. Also read: A new anthology of writings from south Asia celebrates marginalised voices Over the years, as my name became known in academic and literary circles, reports about me must have come to the attention of Dhale, for he commented to my cousin Nitin that 'Suraj has now become an important person". When Dhale died, the national media reached out to me to write an obituary. I was on the way to deliver a series of talks in Kolhapur. But I asked people to send me some books on Dhale and some of his original writings. I wrote the article on my journey from Aurangabad to Kolhapur, two sites driven by Ambedkar's politics. Dhale was widely read. He was among the first Dalits in the movement to actively pursue Black literature. In his young days, he dabbled in translating Black poets into Marathi. There are many such anecdotes about my father—who was my primary interlocutor to this history—and Dhale that touch my thinking and practice. The global story of caste or the story of global castes thus begins with my experience of growing up as a Dalit. It's also a story of Marathwada, India, which had the audacity to connect with the larger world. That is why the Dalit-Black nexus, which started as an investigation of literature and experience in Marathwada, became a precursor to the formation of an active political solidarity. Excerpted from 'Caste: A Global Story' with permission from Penguin Random House India. The book will be available around 30 June.
