"Indian exporters will need to negotiate with US buyers for share of reciprocal tariff refunds", 22 April 2026

Even after the United States has put in place a digital system to refund the ‘reciprocal tariff’ it had collected after that country’s Supreme Court struck down that decision, exporters who had shipped those products will not be its direct beneficiaries.

Only US buyers are eligible to claim the refund and their overseas sellers who had supplied those products will have to enter into direct negotiations with individual importers to see if some of the extra cost borne by the exporters can be refunded.

According to Delhi-based Global Trade Research Initiative, direct $10–12 billion of refunds are linked to goods sourced from India and rebate-sharing, price revisions, or future order gain, through direct negotiations with US buyers, can only help Indian companies recoup that extra cost.

GTRI estimates that about 53% of India’s exports to the U.S.—mainly textiles and apparel—faced these high tariffs...Of the estimated $12 billion linked to India, textiles and apparel may account for about $4 billion, engineering goods another $4 billion, and chemicals about $2 billion, with smaller shares from other sectors, a report published by GTRI said.

“Indian exporters will not get refunds automatically. Payments go only to U.S. importers, and exporters have no legal right to claim them. Indian exporters, therefore, have no direct legal route to claim refunds”, it stated.

GTRI...wants Indian exporters to proactively engage U.S. buyers to seek a share of refunded duties, especially where earlier contracts were priced on a duty-paid basis...