Trump claims India offered tariff cuts on US goods, says ‘too late’

US President Donald Trump has reignited his criticism of India's trade practices, calling the current India–US trade relationship a "one sided disaster", and claiming that New Delhi has recently offered to eliminate import duties on American goods.

Trump’s remarks came via a post on his social media platform Truth Social, shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned from diplomatic engagements in China and Japan. Trump again brought up India’s trade with Russia, suggesting it as a reason behind his administration’s imposition of steep new tariffs.

“What few people understand is that we do very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us… The reason is that India has charged us, until now, such high tariffs… that our businesses are unable to sell into India. It has been a totally one sided disaster!” Trump wrote.

According to US Trade Representative (USTR) data, India exported goods worth $87.3 billion to the US in 2024, while imports from the US were valued at $41.5 billion, resulting in a $45.8 billion trade surplus in India’s favour. For the first half of 2025, Indian exports to the US stood at $56.3 billion, while imports totalled $22.1 billion.

The Russia conundrum

Trump’s recent statement appears to reference the stalled trade negotiations between Washington and New Delhi, and suggests that India has offered to drastically reduce its tariffs — though there has been no official response from the Modi government.

“They (India) have now offered to cut their tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late. They should have done so years ago,” Trump wrote, adding that he was offering “some simple facts for people to ponder”.

Trump also criticised India's continued defence and energy ties with Russia, particularly crude oil imports. “India buys most of its oil and military products from Russia, very little from the US,” he wrote, linking it to the punitive 50 per cent tariffs recently imposed on Indian exports — half of which had already come into effect earlier as a 25 per cent duty.

The tariffs mainly target labour-intensive exports such as textiles, gems and jewellery, footwear, and shrimp, while sparing pharmaceuticals and electronics for now. Indian officials, while not responding directly to Trump’s recent comments, have consistently questioned the rationale behind the new trade barriers.

Tensions escalate amid economic fallout

Trump’s post comes amid signs of mounting frustration in the US over the pace of trade talks. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent last week raised concerns over India’s energy trade with Russia and the lack of progress on a formal trade agreement, citing them as grounds for the new penalties.

Back in India, the government has remained tight-lipped. While US officials have made sharp remarks — including an inflammatory statement from former Trump aide Peter Navarro, who claimed “Brahmin oil refiners were profiteering by reselling Russian oil” — New Delhi has continued to emphasise its long-standing strategic and economic ties with Russia and Asia.

Meanwhile, trade analysts warn that the tariffs could deal a serious blow to India’s export economy. Projections suggest Indian exports to the US could fall from $87 billion in 2024 to about $50 billion by 2026, with a potential impact of 1 per cent on GDP and job losses across multiple sectors.