India now became one of the countries that got worst attack from US President Donald Trump’s trade, with tariffs on Indian imports set to surge to 50% if a deal is not struck in three weeks.
The first country to sign a trade deal with Trump’s team was expected to be India. But talks fell through after five rounds of negotiations over disagreements on opening India’s vast farm and dairy sectors and stopping Russian oil purchases.
New Delhi has strictly reacted to the 50% tariff on US imports from India, which could virtually stall trade. Still, Indian officials are hopeful that closed-door talks will address some differences. A US trade team is expected to visit the Indian capital later this month.
But Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday, without referring to the tariffs, that he was ready to “pay a heavy price” for not compromising on the well-being of the country’s farmers, dairy sector and fishermen.
Indian officials, however, have said they are open to cutting tariffs for some US farm and dairy goods like almond and cheese.
India became world’s third-biggest oil importer and consumer, previously said it was confident of meeting its oil needs from alternative sources if imports from Russia become impractical due to sanctions or other reasons. It bought little Russian oil before the Ukraine war that began in 2022, but now gets more than a third of its oil imports from its old trade and defence partner.
Besides Russia, other big suppliers to India are Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates under annual deals with the flexibility to request more supply every month.
In total, India buys from about 40 countries, including the United States.
Along with India, the other big target of Trump’s tariffs is Brazil. The two countries are founding members of the BRICS bloc that also includes China, Russia and South Africa.
India has also boosted engagement with China, a change after years of tensions following a deadly border clash in 2020. Modi is set to visit China in weeks for the first time since 2018 for the summit of a regional security conference, which could see the coming together of Modi, Putin and China’s Xi Jinping.
