Tianjin, Sept 1 — Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, former US President Donald Trump renewed his attack on India’s trade practices, calling the relationship a “one-sided disaster.”
In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed New Delhi had offered to eliminate tariffs on US goods. “They (India) have now offered to cut their tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late. They should have done so years ago,” he wrote. The Indian government has not issued a formal response to his remarks.
Trump said American businesses continue to face barriers in India due to high duties. “What few people understand is that we do very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us. They sell us massive amounts of goods — their biggest client — but we sell them very little. Until now, it’s been a totally one-sided relationship, and it has been for many decades,” he stated.
He argued that India has imposed “the highest tariffs of any country,” preventing US firms from gaining access to the market. “It has been a totally one-sided disaster,” Trump added.
The former president also criticised India’s close defense and energy ties with Moscow. “India buys most of its oil and military products from Russia, very little from the US,” he said.
Under his administration, Washington had imposed 25 percent reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods, along with another 25 percent levy in response to India’s Russian oil purchases. The combined 50 percent duties are among the steepest applied by the US globally.
New Delhi, for its part, has described the US tariffs as “unjustified and unreasonable.”
