US President Donald Trump stated on Friday that India has agreed to significantly reduce its tariffs.
Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump remarked, “India charges us massive tariffs, massive—you can’t even sell anything in India. It’s almost… it is restrictive. You know, we do very little business inside. They have agreed, by the way. They want to cut their tariffs way down now because somebody’s finally exposing them for what they have done.”
His comments came just hours after India announced that it was exploring ways to deepen trade relations with the US, including reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers under a bilateral trade agreement.
Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, noted that during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US last month, both countries had revealed plans to negotiate a mutually beneficial, multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA).
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal was in the US for discussions with his counterparts, as both governments continued working on advancing talks related to the multi-sector trade pact, Jaiswal added.
“Our objective through the BTA is to strengthen and deepen India-US two-way trade across the goods and services sector, increase market access, reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers, and deepen supply chain integration between the two countries,” Jaiswal stated.
In his latest remarks, the US President also addressed a joint session of Congress, where he listed India alongside the European Union, China, and Canada as countries that impose high tariffs on American products.
Trump asserted that for decades, other nations had used tariffs against the US, and now it was “our turn” to impose them in return.
On February 13, Prime Minister Modi met with Trump in Washington, DC, where both leaders agreed to finalize a major trade agreement by the end of the year. They also set an ambitious goal of reaching USD 500 billion in annual trade by 2030, aiming to narrow the trade deficit.
“Recognizing that this level of ambition would require new, fair-trade terms, the leaders announced plans to negotiate the first tranche of a mutually beneficial, multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) by fall of 2025,” stated a joint press release summarizing the Modi-Trump meeting.
In its Union Budget for 2025-26, India disclosed plans to lower tariffs on products such as bourbon whiskey, wines, and the electric vehicle (EV) sector—widely interpreted as an effort to accommodate US concerns.
Meanwhile, Washington has been urging New Delhi to purchase more American oil, gas, and defense equipment to help reduce the trade deficit, which currently favors India by approximately USD 45 billion.
The US remained India’s largest trading partner in 2023, with total bilateral trade in goods and services reaching USD 190 billion.