India Confirms U.S. Trade Talks Ongoing
(MENAFN) New Delhi confirmed on Tuesday that it is actively negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with the United States, which recently imposed steep tariffs of 50% on Indian imports, including a 25% surcharge specifically targeting India’s continued purchase of Russian oil.
“We are in dialogue with them (US) for a bilateral trade agreement,” Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said during an event in the Indian capital.
The U.S. tariffs, introduced late last month under President Donald Trump, came as a punitive measure against India’s oil imports from Russia. Prior to this, the U.S. had already levied a 25% baseline tariff on Indian goods following failed trade negotiations between the two countries.
Goyal criticized the move, stating, “It is unfortunate that certain important players, certain important countries, have chosen to forego the agenda of sustainability ... .”
India has publicly condemned the U.S. tariff hike, labeling the surcharge as “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable.”
The Indian minister’s comments followed fresh criticism from President Trump on Monday, who described the bilateral trade dynamic as a “totally one-sided disaster.” Trump further claimed that India had now “offered to cut their Tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late. They should have done so years ago.”
“What few people understand is that we do very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us. In other words, they sell us massive amounts of goods, their biggest ‘client,’ but we sell them very little - Until now a totally one sided relationship, and it has been for many decades,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He added, “The reason is that India has charged us, until now, such high Tariffs, the most of any country, that our businesses are unable to sell into India. It has been a totally one sided disaster! Also, India buys most of its oil and military products from Russia, very little from the U.S.”
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