Trump says U.S. will impose 25% tariffs on India : NPR
President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hold a joint press conference in the east house of the White House on February 13.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images
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Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images
President Trump said on Wednesday that the United States will begin to impose 25% prices on goods imported from India on August 1.
In a social post, Trump said that if India is a friend of the United States, “we have done, over the years, relatively little with them because their prices are far too high, among the highest in the world, and they have the most painful and unpleasant non-monetary trade barriers of all countries.”
Trump also said that he would impose an additional sanction on India for his commercial relationship with Russia that Trump tries to put pressure on a ceasefire with Ukraine. Trump did not explain what this penalty would be or if it also came into force on Friday.
Trump’s announcement reached after five cycles of commercial negotiations have not yet given a result, hoping that an agreement could be concluded by August 1. The Indian media reported on Tuesday that US officials were to visit New Delhi for the sixth round at the end of August.
The United States is the best export market in India. Its best products sold in the United States include electronics such as iphones, cheap drugs and precious stones. Last year, trade in American products with India was nearly $ 130 billion, according to USTR. The American trade deficit of goods with India was $ 45.7 billion in 2024. Trump blamed India’s high prices to imports for the trade deficit.
Difficult negotiation
India was among the first countries to start commercial negotiations with the United States since February, its commercial minister Piyush Goyal went to Washington, DC on several occasions. Even in the midst of speculations that India may not make Trump’s deadline, Goyal told Reuters that the two countries made “fantastic” progress.
At first, New Delhi showed his desire to reduce some of his prices. During the February meeting at the White House, India had agreed to buy American oil and hunting jets and give concessions to products like Bourbon Whiskey and Harley Davidson Motorcycles. During the following months, India did not protest against the increase in visa restrictions for students and workers, and completely accepted the expulsion of hundreds of handcuffed Indians.
Indian officials were widely tightened about negotiations. But a few weeks ago, the local media reported that the two parties were unable to remove the differences in prices in dairy products and agriculture, two sectors where India has high import barriers. In an interview with a daily newspaper of Indian companies, the Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman said that agriculture and dairy products were the two “red lines” and that the government would do nothing that “would weaken the positions of our farmers”.
India has protected the two sectors, claiming that they provide means of subsistence to millions of Indian farmers. In 2020, tens of thousands of Indian farmers protested for more than a year after the Indian government introduced laws reducing government purchases and authorizing the free market. The government was forced to repeal the laws.
A trade agreement with the United States is “crucial” for India
When Trump was re -elected to the White House in 2024, many Indian companies celebrated the return of “the friend” of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Trump’s anti-chine position had to benefit Indian jobs and manufacturing. But Trump clearly said that the loss of China does not mean the gain in India. After Apple CEO Tim Cook announced its intention to move most of China’s iPhone production to India, Trump said he said: “I don’t want you to build in India.”
When the fighting broke out between India and Pakistan in May, Trump boasted that he had used the trade agreement as a lever to negotiate a cease-fire within four days. In his first public remarks on such claims, Modi said yesterday that “no world leader” had asked India to stop his strikes in Pakistan. However, he did not name Trump.
Experts say that India is working carefully because it is vulnerable, although it is the fifth world economy.
“India is a large country but its purchasing power is not very high,” said Amit Basole, professor of economics at Azim Premji University in India. “We need very badly, especially in the manufacturing and more productive sectors. Indian companies need export markets to grow and create these jobs.”
A trade agreement with the United States, says Basole, is therefore “critical” for India.
