FICCI President Harsha Vardhan Agarwal expresses disappointment over the decision taken by the US
New York, NFAPost: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a 25% tariff on Indian goods, citing high trade barriers and India’s purchases of energy and military equipment from Russia.
He also described India’s trade policies as the ‘most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary trade barriers of any country’.
In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump wrote, “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.”
He added, “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!”
Trump’s announcement comes barely two days before the end of the tariff pause, scheduled to expire on August 1. Incidentally, the US had on Tuesday announced that the tariff pause would continue with China. Following his post, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told reporters, “Trump has been frustrated with how trade talks with India are progressing and believes his 25 per cent tariff announcement will help the situation.”
The US has also been pressing India to commit to not reintroducing the so-called ‘Google tax’ — a 6 per cent equalisation levy on online advertising services provided by non-resident entities — while New Delhi is seeking protection from potential future tariffs on pharmaceutical exports. The new tariff rates are expected to impact India’s goods exports to the US, estimated at around $87 billion in 2024; the US currently runs a $45.7 bn trade deficit with India.
Indian officials have been engaged in a series of talks with their US counterparts to resolve the tariff issues and to reach an interim trade deal. Both sides have completed five rounds of negotiations, with the sixth one scheduled for late August. A key sticking point in the talks has been the Indian side’s stance on not allowing genetically-modified (GM) crops and American dairy products, given the political and economic sensitivities around India’s sprawling agriculture and dairy sectors.
Meanwhile, despite the announcement of 25% tariffs, India remains engaged with the US on a trade deal, Reuters reported on Wednesday, quoting an unnamed government source. Indian government officials had been planning to continue negotiating for a bilateral trade deal by fall of this year, Bloomberg News reported earlier.
Commenting on US President Donald Trump’s announcement to levy a 25% tariff as well as secondary sanctions on exports from India starting from August 1, 2025, FICCI President Harsha Vardhan Agarwal said FICCI is disappointed by the decision taken by the US to levy 25% tariff on exports from India and impose secondary sanctions.
“While this move is unfortunate and will have a clear bearing on our exports, we hope that this imposition of higher tariffs will be a short-term phenomenon and that a permanent trade deal between the two sides will be finalised soon,” said FICCI President Harsha Vardhan Agarwal.
He also said India and U.S. have a long-standing partnership, which is strengthened by our deepening engagement across an array of areas from technology to defence to energy and advance manufacturing.
“There is a lot our two countries can achieve together, and FICCI is confident that following the detailed deliberations that are currently underway, we will see beneficial outcomes for both countries when the contours of the final trade agreement will emerge,” added FICCI President Harsha Vardhan Agarwal.
India has been actively negotiating a BTA with the US since the start of the year, and we understand that there had been some specific demands from the US side which are not in our national interest and therefore Indian government has not given in to those demands from the US. Also, the US team is coming to India in latter half of August to further discuss on the BTA. We are hopeful that the two sides will make progress in their discussions and complete the negotiations by the September-October 2025.
