The Government of India has formally rejected a series of trade allegations leveled by the United States, calling for an immediate termination of the ongoing Section 301 investigation into its trade practices. According to reports released on April 16, 2026, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry submitted a comprehensive rebuttal to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). India has maintained that its domestic policies—particularly those concerning digital services taxes, intellectual property rights, and agricultural subsidies—are fully compliant with World Trade Organization (WTO) norms and are essential for protecting its national economic interests and developmental goals.
The dispute centers on the USTR’s “Special 301 Report,” which frequently places India on a “Priority Watch List” for alleged inadequacies in patent protection and “discriminatory” market access barriers. Indian officials have countered that the Section 301 probe is a “unilateral and protectionist” tool that undermines the multilateral trading system. New Delhi argued that the Equalization Levy (often called the Google Tax) is a non-discriminatory measure aimed at ensuring fair competition in the digital economy, rather than a specific attack on American tech giants. With bilateral trade reaching record highs, India has urged the US to resolve these “frictional issues” through high-level diplomatic dialogue via the Trade Policy Forum (TPF), rather than through the threat of retaliatory tariffs, which could destabilize global supply chains already under pressure from energy shocks.
