Washington, DC: US President Donald Trump has once again drawn attention to trade frictions between Washington and New Delhi, claiming that the relationship had long been unbalanced in India’s favor.
Speaking on trade issues, Trump said that for years India imposed extremely high tariffs on American goods while freely accessing the U.S. market. “We get along with India very well, but for many years it was a one-sided relationship,” he remarked.
#WATCH | Washington, DC | US President Donald Trump says, “We get along with India very well, but for many years it was a one-sided relationship… India was charging us tremendous tariffs, the highest in the world. They were about the highest in the world… We weren’t doing… pic.twitter.com/qcU9uNEir3
— ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2025
According to Trump, certain American products faced near-prohibitive import duties in India. He pointed to the example of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, which were subject to tariffs as high as 200 percent. This, he argued, forced the company to set up a local plant in India rather than export directly from the U.S.
He further claimed that these policies discouraged American exports while allowing India to send large volumes of goods to the U.S. “They would send in a massive amount of everything they made, and pour it into our country… but we weren’t sending much to them because of these high tariffs,” he said.
On the other hand, Trump highlighted that his trade policies and tariff measures encouraged companies to relocate production facilities to the United States. He said car manufacturers from China, Mexico, and Canada were building new factories in America, motivated by both protective tariffs and the appeal of producing directly within the U.S. market.
“When you build here, you don’t have to pay tariffs,” Trump explained, adding that this approach was designed to safeguard American industries and create domestic jobs.
Trump has frequently criticized India’s trade barriers in the past, calling for fairer terms and greater market access for American businesses.
