India-US trade ‘a totally one-sided disaster’, Donald Trump says as ties worsen

India-US trade “is a totally one-sided disaster”, US President Donald Trump said on Monday. That, in effect, worsens the ties between the two largest democracies in the world.

India has now offered to cut their tariffs to nothing, but now it’s getting late, US President Donald Trump says.(Bloomberg)

“What few people understand is that we do very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us,” the US president said in a post on Truth Social. “In other words, they sell us massive amounts of goods, their biggest ‘client’, but we sell them very little…a totally one sided relationship, and it has been for many decades.”

“The reason is that India has charged us, until now, such high tariffs…that our businesses are unable to sell into India. It has been a totally one-sided disaster!”

US-India Trade

On 27 August, the US implemented 50% tariffs on India in response to New Delhi's Russian oil imports, which US officials say is funding the Ukraine war. These tariffs affect $48-$87 billion worth of goods, particularly impacting labour-intensive sectors like textiles, gems and jewellery, footwear, shrimp, and leather goods. Some sectors such as pharmaceuticals and electronics were largely exempt.

Forecasts suggest Indian exports to the US may decline dramatically—from around $86.5 billion to about $50 billion by 2026, with potential GDP impact of about 1% and job losses.

In 2024, the US imported $87.3 billion in goods from India and exported $41.5 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of $45.8 billion for India, according to the US Trade Representative. Total bilateral trade in goods and services between the two countries in 2024 stood at approximately $212 billion.

In the first six months of 2025, US imports from India totalled $56.3 billion, while exports stood at $22.1 billion—resulting in a trade surplus of $34.3% in favour of India.

Tirades Over Trade

Trump's latest tirade against India follows that of his trade adviser Peter Navarro who said that “Brahmins” are profiteering at the expense of the Indian people and it needs to “stop”.

“Look (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi is a great leader,” Navarro said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.

The trade adviser said that he doesn't understand how the Indian leader is cooperating with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping “when he's the biggest democracy in the world”.

“So I would just simply say, the Indian people, please understand what's going on here. You got Brahmins profiteering at the expense of the Indian people. We need that to stop,” Navarro said.

India-US Trade Deal

“They (India) have now offered to cut their tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late,” Trump said in his Truth Social post. “They should have done so years ago.”

But talks for an India-US trade deal have been postponed, Bloomberg reported on 28 August, but New Delhi and Washington DC continue to communicate on critical issues, including defence and foreign policy, Bloomberg cited a top commerce ministry official as saying.

A trade deal between the two nations can’t be signed until both the reciprocal tariffs and the secondary duties over Russian oil purchases are scrapped, the official said.

New Delhi will keep working with Washington toward that bilateral trade deal although no date has been set for the next round of talks, the official cited earlier told Bloomberg. A US trade team that was scheduled to arrive in India on 25-29 August for a sixth round of trade talks had deferred its visit.

Still, India and the US are keeping informal communications channels open, and New Delhi has no immediate plans to retaliate against Trump tariffs.