On July 30, President Donald Trump imposed a 25% import duty on imports of goods into the US with effect from August 1, 2025. Not content with the stiff duty, he has also vaguely announced stiff penalty for India daring to import oil and arms from Russia in defiance of his and NATO’s stance of boycotting all trade deals with Russia for not ending its three-year old war with Ukraine.

He had given dark hints that such penalty along with tariff could be as high as 100% on the three defiant nations—India, China and Brazil.

In 2024-25, bilateral trade between the two nations reached USD 186 billion, with India enjoying a trade surplus of USD 44.4 billion. India exported USD 86.5 billion worth of goods and imported USD 45.3 billion. In services alone it recorded a surplus of USD 3.2 billion.

In the face of such a massive trade deficit, President Donald Trump was itching to up the ante. It is not as if the US was having trade deficit only with India. On the contrary, the United States has always had an overall trade deficit. This means the country imports more goods and services than it exports. In 2023, the U.S. goods and services trade deficit was $773.4 billion, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) with services........

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