President Donald Trump announced that the United States will impose a 25% tariff on Indian goods beginning on August 1.
“Remember, while India is our friend, we have, over the years, done relatively little business with them because their Tariffs are far too high, among the highest in the World, and they have the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary Trade Barriers of any Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Also, they have always bought a vast majority of their military equipment from Russia, and are Russia’s largest buyer of ENERGY, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE — ALL THINGS NOT GOOD! INDIA WILL THEREFORE BE PAYING A TARIFF OF 25%, PLUS A PENALTY FOR THE ABOVE, STARTING ON AUGUST FIRST. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER. MAGA!”
According to the 2025 Foreign Trade Barriers report, India has “considerable flexibility to change tariff rates for both agricultural and non-agricultural products at any time, creating tremendous uncertainty for U.S. workers, farmers, ranchers, and exporters.”
“The Government of India took advantage of this tariff flexibility in the 2019/2020 budget by increasing tariffs without any notice or public consultation process on approximately 70 product categories, including those covering key U.S. exports in the agricultural, information and communication technology, medical devices, paper products, chemicals, and automotive parts sectors,” the report explains. “In its 2020/2021 budget, India further raised tariffs for 31 product categories, including solar inverters and solar lanterns.” India again raised tariff rates on some products in its 2021/2022 budget.
The report notes that India’s tariff rates on agricultural products are “among the highest in the world, averaging 113.1 percent and ranging as high as 300.0 percent.”
