Washington / Jaipur: A routine-sounding tariff review underway in the United States has drawn the attention of India’s stone exporters, whose granite and marble shipments anchor a trade that employs several lakh people across Rajasthan and Gujarat.
The review, which examines whether construction-input tariffs should be recalibrated under existing trade provisions, could alter landed costs for Indian stone in a market that absorbs roughly a fifth of the country’s exports by value.
Exporters describe the exposure as concentrated: a cluster of large processors accounts for the bulk of US-bound consignments, and even a mid-single-digit duty change would compress margins that are already thinned by freight volatility.
The domestic counterweight is real, though. India’s own construction boom — expressways, airports, transit corridors — is absorbing capacity that once would have chased export volume, and processors report domestic order books running months ahead.
Trade bodies have begun preparing submissions, arguing the classification under review lumps decorative stone with industrial inputs. A determination is expected before the end of the financial year.
