India has agreed to cut tariffs… finally exposing them: Donald Trump

Trump’s remarks came hours after India said it is looking at deepening trade ties with the US including by reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers under a bilateral trade agreement.

Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said that during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US last month, both sides announced plans to negotiate a mutually beneficial, multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA).

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal was in the US and met his counterparts and the two governments were in the process of advancing discussions on a multi-sector bilateral trade pact, he said.

#WATCH | Washington, DC: US President Donald Trump says, “…India charges us massive tariffs. Massive. You can’t even sell anything in India…They have agreed, by the way; they want to cut their tariffs way down now because somebody is finally exposing them for what they have… pic.twitter.com/XwytKPli48

— ANI (@ANI) March 7, 2025

“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 said.

In his latest statement, the US President, while addressing a joint session of the Congress, mentioned India alongside the European Union, China and Canada for charging higher tariffs on American products.

Trump said other countries have used tariffs against the US for decades, and now it’s “our turn” to start using them against those nations.

Modi held talks with Trump on February 13 in Washington DC.

In the meeting, the two sides agreed to negotiate a mega trade deal by the end of this year and set an ambitious target of USD 500 billion in annual trade by 2030 to narrow the trade deficit.

“Recognising 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,” a joint statement on the Modi-Trump talks said.

In its Union budget for 2025-26, India announced its decision to lower tariffs on bourbon whiskey, wines and electronic vehicle (EV) segments — perceived as India’s attempt to placate the US President.

Washington is also asking New Delhi to buy more American oil, gas and defence equipment to bring down the trade deficit that stands at around USD 45 billion in India’s favour.

The US was the largest trading partner of India with overall bilateral trade in goods and services amounting to USD 190 billion for calendar year 2023.