India doesn't expect immediate hit on steel exports after US import curbs: Government official

NEW DELHI: India does not expect any immediate impact from US President Donald Trump's decision to impose curbs on steel imports, the steel ministry's top bureaucrat said on Friday.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Trump announced he would impose hefty tariffs on imported steel and aluminium to protect US producers.
• "We have only 2 percent of our exports to US, so no immediate dent," steel secretary Aruna Sharma said.

Trump announced on Thursday he would impose hefty tariffs on imported steel and aluminium to protect US producers, risking retaliation from major trade partners like China, Europe and neighbouring Canada.

"We have only 2 percent of our exports to US, so no immediate dent, but validity of Section 232 is stretched to be used as tariff barrier," India's steel secretary Aruna Sharma told Reuters, referring to the US trade clause being invoked.

The Trade Expansion Act of 1962, Section 232(b) gives the United States the ability to investigate whether certain imports, or high levels of certain imports, pose a threat to national security.