US President Donald Trump on Friday again reiterated that India imposes huge tariffs on the US and stated that New Delhi has agreed to cut tariffs to improve trade relations. Hours before Trump’s statement, India said that it was working on the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with the US.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said, “India charges us massive tariffs. Massive. You can’t even sell anything in India. It is almost restrictive, we do every little business inside. 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.”
Trump had earlier targeted India’s import duties in a speech to a joint session of Congress. Trump specifically targeted India’s tariffs on automobile imports, saying, “India charges us auto tariffs higher than 100%.”
Speaking to the media earlier on Friday, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that India and the US are gearing up to negotiate a landmark Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) that could potentially boost trade between the two nations.
Jaiswal said that the agreement aims to strengthen and deepen India-US two-way trade in goods and services, increase market access, and reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers.
“The two governments are in the process of advancing discussions on a multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement. Through the BTA, our objective is to strengthen and deepen India-US two-way trade in the goods and services sector, increase market access, reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers, and deepen supply chain integration between the two countries,” said Jaiswal.
The announcement comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US in February 2025, where both sides expressed interest in negotiating a mutually beneficial, multi-sector BTA. Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goyal also recently met his US counterparts to advance discussions on the agreement.