India has followed the European Union in imposing retaliatory levies on US goods, as the trade war between China and the US worsens. Customs duties have been hiked on several goods, including Bengal gram, lentils, and artemia that are imported from the US.

As per a notification from the finance ministry, the import duty would be effective from August 4. Some of these are:

The other products on which duties have been hiked include certain kind of nuts, iron and steel products, apples, pears, flat-rolled products of stainless steel, other alloy steel, tube and pipe fittings, and screws, bolts and rivets.

There was no duty hike on motorcycles imported from the US.

India had submitted the revised list of 30 items to the WTO (World Trade Organisation), last week with a proposal to raise customs duties by up to 50 percent. The move was in retaliation to the duty hike by the US on certain steel and aluminum products which had tariff implication of $241 million on India. The hike in duty would have an equivalent tariff implication on the US.

On March 9, US President Donald Trump had imposed heavy tariffs on imported steel and aluminum items, sparking a fear of global trade war. India is said to have been impacted by the duty imposed on steel exports by $198.6 million and aluminum shipments have been impacted by $42.4 million.

India has also dragged the US to the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism over its imposition of import duties on steel and aluminum. India exports steel and aluminum products worth about $1.5 billion to the US every year. India's exports to the US in 2016-17 stood at $42.21 billion, while imports were worth $22.3 billion.

Inputs from PTI