Tariffs and ceasefire
In his address to the Joint Session of Congress, Trump criticised India and other countries for the high tariffs they charged on American products, the first of the many statements he made over the course of the year slamming the high levies imposed by India.
While Trump described India as a “very high tariff nation”, members of his administration too did not hold back in their criticism, with his trade adviser Peter Navarro calling India the “Maharaja of tariffs.”
On April 2, which Trump proclaimed as ‘Liberation Day’, he slapped reciprocal tariffs on countries around the world and announced a 26% “discounted reciprocal tariff” on New Delhi, which the US president claimed was half of the 52% levies imposed by India on American goods. However, Trump announced on various occasions that a trade deal with India would happen “soon.”
The two nations made “significant progress” towards a mutually beneficial bilateral trade pact when US Vice President JD Vance visited India and held wide-ranging talks with PM Modi. Vance and Modi announced the Terms of Reference for the bilateral trade agreement between the US and India.
It was around the time that Vance was in India that a horrific terror attack took place on April 22 in Pahalgam perpetrated by The Resistance Front, a proxy of Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, in which 26 civilians were killed. In retaliation, India launched Operation Sindoor, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
On May 10, the fourth day of the conflict, Trump suddenly announced on his Truth Social page that the US had brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan. And since May 10, Trump has now repeated the claim more than 70 times that he solved the conflict between India and Pakistan and that he used trade to bring the fighting to an end.
In June, Modi and Trump were scheduled to meet on the sidelines of the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis, Canada, but Trump returned to Washington early.
The two leaders, however, spoke on June 17, a 35-minute phone call.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said that Modi clearly conveyed to Trump that at “no point” during the days following Operation Sindoor was there any discussion, at any level, on an India-US Trade Deal, or any proposal for a mediation by the US between India and Pakistan.
Trump has been critical of India’s purchases of Russian oil and, in August, imposed an additional 25% levy on Indian imports, bringing the total tariffs imposed on India to 50%, among the highest in the world.
US lawmakers have condemned the tariffs imposed by Trump on India, with Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi saying the levies place an “unnecessary strain” on Washington’s relationship with Delhi.