India said it is in talks with Washington on a bilateral trade deal after US President Donald Trump imposed tariffs of up to 50 percent on Indian goods, including a 25 percent penalty tied to New Delhi’s continued purchases of Russian oil.
“We are in dialogue with them (the US) for a bilateral trade agreement,” India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal told an event in the capital on Tuesday.
He also denounced Washington’s tariffs as “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable,” criticising “important countries” for sidelining global sustainability in favour of punitive trade measures—clearly alluding to the US without naming it.
Tariffs to pressure New Delhi
The tariffs, which took effect late last month, were partly aimed at pressuring India to reduce energy imports from Moscow.
Trump had earlier slapped a 25 percent baseline tariff on Indian exports after trade talks failed, further escalating tensions between the two partners.
On Monday, Trump renewed his criticism of India, calling the trade relationship a “totally one-sided disaster” in a post on Truth Social.
US Vice President JD Vance later shared a screenshot of Trump’s post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In the post, Trump claimed India has long imposed some of the world’s highest tariffs on US goods, making it “impossible” for American companies to compete in the Indian market, while India “sells us massive amounts of goods.”
“India buys most of its oil and military products from Russia, very little from the US,” Trump said, while also noting that New Delhi had “offered to cut their tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late.”
