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By Shivangi Acharya and Manoj Kumar
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The United States has flagged concerns over India's increasing and burdensome import-quality requirements, among its many barriers to trade, in a report released two days before planned U.S. reciprocal tariffs take effect.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Monday provided an encyclopedic list of foreign countries' policies and regulations it regards as barriers, calling out India's customs barriers, import curbs and licenses, alongside high tariffs.
In the midst of President Donald Trump's efforts to upend the global trade order and shift it in Washington's favour, India is one of the few nations working to lower tariffs and win over Trump, who has often called the South Asian nation a "tariff king" and "tariff abuser."
Both countries have started talks towards clinching an early trade deal. Last month, Reuters reported India was open to cutting tariffs on more than half of U.S. imports worth $23 billion, the biggest cut in years.
Still, the U.S. has concerns that some of India's import requirements are not internationally aligned, and that some are burdensome or lack clear timelines, the Trump administration said in its latest USTR report.
It wasn't clear if Trump's April 2 announcement on tariffs would factor in the findings of the USTR report.
Some of India's non-tariff barriers have also been a pressure point in bilateral trade ties.
Since 2019, India has made many Bureau of India Standards (BIS) standards mandatory for quality control in sectors including chemicals, medical devices, batteries, electronics, food and textiles, the USTR said.
India's standards certification authority, which has so far issued over 700 quality control orders in around 100 sectors, plans to issue 125 new orders in sectors covering chemicals, textiles, steel, aluminum, electric equipment, as per an Indian government statement.
India is not considering imposing retaliatory tariffs yet in response to Trump's worldwide reciprocal tariffs, as New Delhi hopes for an exemption, two government officials said.
The U.S. has, however, offered no assurance on exemptions during bilateral talks last week, the officials added.
The USTR's Monday report also highlighted other contentious non-tariff issues, including India's data privacy regime.
India's draft rules for its so-called Digital Personal Data Protection Act released last month could require disclosure of personal data to the Indian government, restrict cross-border data transfer and may allow data localization, the USTR said.
The U.S. has also raised concerns over policies for electronic payments services that appear to favor Indian domestic suppliers over foreign ones.
(Additional reporting by Jaspreet Kalra in Mumbai; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
