Trump hits India with 25% tariff

Imports from India will now face a 25% tariff, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday, his latest trade-war declaration in what has become a cornerstone of his second administration.

Writing on Truth Social, Trump said India’s own tariffs are “far too high” while calling other trade barriers “strenuous and obnoxious,” without specifying what he was referring to.

In 2022, India applied an effective average tariff rate of 5.2% on U.S. goods.

While 25% is slightly lower than the 26% that Trump threatened on April 2, it is still a sharp increase from 2.4%, which is the average tariff rate applied to Indian imports in recent years. India is one of the top sources of imports for American consumers and companies with nearly $90 billion of goods flowing in from India last year.

Some of the top U.S. imports from India include chemicals, plastics, leather goods, agricultural products, and metals. Oils, cement, stone, glass, and machinery rank as India’s top purchases from the U.S.

The announcement comes ahead of a Friday deadline for countries to negotiate new trade terms that Trump also said Wednesday “stands strong” and “will not be extended.” The president has signaled dozens of other countries will face a new baseline tariff level of as much as 20% — higher than the already-elevated 10% he announced in April.

Trump continues to plunge headlong into a tariffs strategy that has cast a cloud of uncertainty over the global economy. Over the past two weeks, Trump has announced new agreements with a host of other countries designed to clarify new trade terms with the U.S., but which critics say are beset by vague details and unworkable promises.

Major stock indexes have nevertheless continued to churn higher, in part because some companies are noting the hit to their bottom lines from the tariffs won’t be as bad as initially feared.