‘One-sided Disaster’: How Donald Trump views India-US trade relations

US President Donald Trump has spoken out once again! In his latest post on microblogging site Truth Social, a platform he prefers to jot down his thoughts from time to time, Trump described the US-India trade relations as a “one-sided disaster”, blaming India for benefitting from the US market for “many decades”. 

“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,” he wrote.

His remarks come as the US and India — the world’s largest and fifth-largest economies — engage in trade amounting to beyond $190 billion annually, and days after his additional 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods took effect, taking the total duty to 50 per cent. 

Currently, India and Mexico are the only countries that bear the brunt of the Trump 2.0 administration’s highest trade tariff rate of 50 per cent. 

“India has charged us, until now, such high Tariffs, the most of any country, that our businesses are unable to sell into India,” wrote Trump. 

The additional US duty on Indian goods is over Trump’s criticism of India’s oil trade with Russia, in light of the ongoing Ukraine war. India has on several occasions stood firm in its stand against America’s criticism of its Russian oil trade, defending its energy imports and stressing the necessity of these purchases for its economic stability.

‘A totally one-sided disaster!’ | How Trump views India-US trade relations

 “It has been a totally one sided disaster! Also, India buys most of its oil and military products from Russia, very little from the US. They have now offered to cut their Tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late,” his Truth Social post added.

Trump claimed that India has “now offered” to remove its tariff on American goods.

“They should have done so years ago. Just some simple facts for people to ponder!” wrote the 47th US president. 

His remarks came on a day Wall Street observed a market holiday for Labor Day. 

What Trump said after US appeals court dubbed his sweeping tariffs ‘unconstitutional’  

Over the weekend, Trump wrote on the same platform that if his “tariffs ever went away, it would be disastrous for the Country”. Those remarks followed an appeals court describing his sweeping tariffs as “unconstitutional”.

Many eminent economists and financial experts have criticised Trump’s tariff policy, especially for India. 

American economist Richard Wolff has described the Trump 2.0 tariffs as “a mouse hitting his fist to an elephant”, according to foreign media. 

Justifying the tariffs, the US president said he will take the matter to the Supreme Court. “Today a Highly Partisan Appeals Court incorrectly said that our Tariffs should be removed, but they know the United States of America will win in the end,” he wrote.

He also claimed that removing the tariffs will make America “financially weak”.

The US has “to be strong”, he wrote.

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