India Trade Team Leaves DC Without Ceramic Tariff Agreement

Glen Ellyn, IL, April 28, 2026-India’s twelve-member trade negotiating team spent three working days in DC last week meeting with their U.S. counterparts, the Ceramic Tile Distributors Association reports. The Indian press, in particular, was very optimistic for a tariff agreement, but the negotiators left at the end of the week with no agreement. Thus, the India-U.S. draft trade deal, which had been negotiated prior to the February 20th Supreme Court decision invalidating the IEEPA tariffs, remains unfinalized and unsigned after months of negotiations.

India may be reluctant to proceed with the draft agreement as it provides for an 18% (plus the applicable U.S. MFN tariff) across the board U.S. tariff on Indian-origin products. The current additional U.S. tariff is just 10% (plus the applicable U.S. MFN tariff which for ceramic tile is 8.5% to 10%), as imposed by the Trump Administration on the day after the adverse Supreme Court decision on the IEEPA tariffs.

The delay in finalizing the deal could prove to be expensive for India as the U.S. administration will conclude the ongoing investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 in June which concerns unfair trade practices employed by India. This could lead to the imposition of additional U.S. tariffs on imports from India (Section 301 tariffs of 25% were imposed on most products from China in 2018 and remain in effect eight years later). The primary issue involves the bilateral merchandise trade deficit which is roughly 2-1 in India’s favor. In this regard, U.S. goods exports to India in 2025 were $45.6 billion, up 9.8% ($4.1 billion) from 2024. U.S. goods imports from India totaled $103.8 billion in 2025, up 18.9% ($16.5 billion) from 2024. The U.S. goods trade deficit with India was $58.2 billion in 2025, a 27.1% increase ($12.4 billion) over 2024. 

The bottom line is that India could face the risk of higher tariffs than what was agreed upon in the draft agreement of early February if it fails to sign off on the tariff deal with the U.S. before the Section 301 probe ends in June.