US reduces tariff on Pakistani goods to 19%

Following a trade deal with Pakistan, the Trump administration reduced tariffs on Pakistani goods from 29% to 19% under the recently signed bilateral agreement.

Pakistan is among the 69 countries that have to pay a tariff if they export to the US. The tariff will take effect in a week. 

On Friday, the US president announced new taxes on products coming from several countries, including Canada, Brazil, India, and Taiwan. These taxes will raise prices on various goods, with Canada facing a 35% increase, Brazil 50%, India 25%, Taiwan 20%, and Switzerland 39%. This decision was made through an official executive order from the president.

Trump’s executive order lists ongoing trade imbalances and a lack of reciprocity in bilateral trading relationships as the justification for the newly imposed tariffs.

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The order asserts that the US is confronted with “unusual and extraordinary threats” to its national security and economy resulting from significant annual trade deficits. 

The 19% tariff on Pakistan is lower than those applied to several regional rivals, such as India (25%), Bangladesh (20%), Vietnam (20%), and Sri Lanka (20%). 

The executive order stated, “despite having engaged in negotiations, have offered terms that, in my judgement, do not sufficiently address imbalances in our trading relationship or have failed to align sufficiently with the United States on economic and national-security matters.”

Read: Trump imposes 30% tariff on imports from EU and Mexico

“We have some deals,” the official said. “And I don’t want to get ahead of the President of the United States in announcing those deals.”

Earlier, the US President Donald Trump had announced that the United States would impose a 25% tariff on imports from India starting August 1, citing what he described as unfair trade practices and high tariff barriers.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump had accused India of maintaining "the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary trade barriers".

He claimed that the country has historically imposed some of the highest tariffs in the world.