“Somebody Is Finally Exposing India”: Trump’s Latest “Massive Tariff” Claim

Arun Jain,

US President Donald Trump on Friday reiterated that India charges “massive tariffs” and said that you can’t sell anything in the country. The 78-year-old Republican, whose tariff announcements have sent stock markets into a tailspin, also said that India has agreed to slash its tariffs.

“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 done,” he told reporters at the White House.

Trump, who took office on January 20, has continuously criticised India for high tariffs imposed by India and other countries.

In his address to the joint session of Congress on Tuesday, he termed the tariffs as “very unfair”.

“Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades, and now it’s our turn to start using them against those other countries,” Trump said in his address, the first of his second term. 

“On average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Mexico and Canada – have you heard of them? – and countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs than we charge them. It’s very unfair,” he told the US lawmakers.

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“India charges us auto tariffs higher than 100 per cent,” he added.

Since taking office, he has unleashed a series of tariffs and threats targeting many countries. He has also promised “reciprocal tariffs” as soon as April 2.

“An eye for an eye, a tariff for a tariff, same exact amount,” he had said during the presidential election campaign.

During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the White House last month, he said that India has “been very strong on tariffs”.

“I don’t blame them, necessarily, but it’s a different way of doing business. It’s very hard to sell into India because they have trade barriers, very strong tariffs,” the US President had said.

According to reports, the US’ total goods trade with India was an estimated USD 129.2 billion in 2024. US goods exports to India in 2024 were USD 41.8 billion. The US goods trade deficit with India was USD 45.7 billion in 2024, a 5.4 per cent increase (USD 2.4 billion) over 2023.

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