India and the US have agreed to reschedule the planned meeting of their chief negotiators in Washington to finalise the interim trade pact, according to media reports.
The reports added that the visit of the Indian negotiating team will be arranged after both sides have had time to assess recent developments and their implications. The meeting will take place on a mutually convenient date.
The Indian delegation was originally scheduled for a three-day meeting starting on 23 February. Notably, US President Donald Trump has raised global tariffs from 10 per cent to 15 per cent, a day after the Supreme Court struck down sweeping trade duties imposed by his administration, ruling that he had exceeded his authority under emergency powers.
Announcing the decision on his social media platform Truth Social on Saturday, Trump said the increase would take effect immediately and described the court’s ruling as “ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American”.
“Based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday, after MANY months of contemplation, by the United States Supreme Court, please let this statement serve to represent that I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10 per cent Worldwide Tariff on Countries, many of which have been ‘ripping’ the US off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15 per cent level,” he wrote.
He further said that in the coming months, his administration would determine and issue new and legally permissible tariffs as part of what he termed an “extraordinarily successful process” of strengthening the American economy.
The development follows a significant setback for Trump on Friday, when the Supreme Court struck down the sweeping tariffs imposed by his administration. The court ruled that the president had relied on a law designed for national emergencies to justify broad trade tariffs, going beyond the scope of presidential authority.
The administration had invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), legislation typically used during extraordinary national crises, to impose the duties. However, the Supreme Court concluded that applying the law to implement wide-ranging trade tariffs amounted to an overreach of executive power. |
