Trade twist: Trump predicts India to cut tariffs on US goods, yet charges hold steady from April 2

Donald Trump told Reuters that he predicted Chinese tariffs would decrease substantially but Americans would enforce identical tariffs against China starting on April 2.The government recently told Parliament that the United States has not started charging India with equal rates of import taxes. Indian officials clarified this fact after Trump expressed displeasure about India and other countries placing excessive import tariffs on American products.

United States President 

The United States President announced during his January announcement that America would start placing matching tariffs on products which other nations levy taxes against on April 2. The US commerce secretary and USTR received instructions from their government to perform an economic impact assessment on non-reciprocal international trade agreements through a memorandum issued on February 13. The authorities must ascertain any possible damage before they submit recommendations with proposed solutions to both partners.The leaders of India and the United States agreed to escalate their commercial relations through a USD 500 billion target for 2030. Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a visit to Washington in the previous month where India and the US planned to enhance their trade volume to reach USD 500 billion by 2030.

Bilateral Trade Agreement

The two countries committed to approve the initial section of their multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) throughout fall 2025. A total of USD 190.08 billion sparked the trade flow between the two countries where goods worth USD 123.89 billion and services totaling USD 66.19 billion were exchanged during the year 2023. India experienced a trade situation where exports of USD 83.77 billion outweighed imports of USD 40.12 billion during the assessed period thus generating a USD 43.65 billion surplus for the country.India achieved its highest trade surplus with the United States from 2021 to 2024 while making the U.S. its main business connection during this time span.