US President Donald Trump may call India the “tariff king”, but data show New Delhi has exercised “maximum self-restraint” in taxing imports. While India’s average bound rate — or the maximum duty it is allowed to charge under the World Trade Organization (WTO) framework — is as much as 48.5%, its actual applied tariff is as low as 13.8%, according to the WTO data. On a trade-weightage basis, the tariff is even lower — just 7.5%. In contrast, China’s applied tariff of 9.8% is almost as high as its permissible limit (bound rate) of 10%, while South Korea’s is 13.7% against 16.5%. Importantly, at an average of 3.4%, the actual US tariff is as much as it is allowed to slap.