Washington, D.C.- US President Donald Trump used his social media site, Truth Social, to criticize India’s trade policies, calling the relationship “totally one-sided” and complaining about the country’s high tariffs. The statements come at a time when tensions between the two countries are high, and Washington’s recent 50% tariff on Indian goods has made things worse.
Trump said in his post, “What few people know is that we don’t do much business with India, but they do a lot of business with us.” He went on to say that India has “offered to cut their tariffs to nothing,” but it’s getting late. Long ago, they should have done it. This statement is about the trade talks that are still going on but have hit a wall on important topics, including access to agricultural markets and tariff reciprocity. A US delegation was supposed to visit New Delhi soon, but the trip was put off because tensions were growing.
The president’s condemnation comes after a number of public comments made by his top aides. Peter Navarro, a trade advisor at the White House, and Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, have both said in public that India is indirectly subsidizing Russia’s conflict in Ukraine by buying cheap Russian oil. They say that Indian refiners are making money off of the deal, which they say goes against US sanctions. India has always justified its energy imports, saying that national interests and market offers govern its selections.
The US has put a 50% tax on Indian imports, and half of that tax is a direct punishment for India’s oil trade with Russia. This punishment has caused a “strategic shock” in India’s labor-intensive industries, and experts say that exports in some areas could fall by as much as 70%.
Trump’s most recent comments also show that he doesn’t like India’s foreign policy in general. Reports in the US media say that the President is upset that India won’t give him credit for the recent ceasefire with Pakistan and is becoming closer to Russia and China. Reports say that this tension caused him to abandon his scheduled trip to India for the Quad leaders’ conference, which shows how fragile the two countries’ relationship is.
Even while there is tension in public, officials from both sides are said to be attempting to save the bigger relationship. The future of the cooperation looks less assured, though, because the US-India bilateral trade pact is still stuck and Trump’s government is taking a more aggressive, transactional approach.