Leaving no doubt about his intentions, US President Donald Trump has said that his country would impose reciprocal tariffs on India on April 2 if New Delhi does not lower its tariffs substantially by then.

Key ministries, including external affairs, commerce and industry, finance and agriculture, have huddled in meetings with stakeholders to decide on tariff cuts for the US, but time is running out, with Washington strongly indicating that the April 2 date for reciprocal tariffs will not be shifted.

“I have a very good relationship with India, but the only problem I have with India is they’re one of the highest-tariffing nations in the world. I believe they’re going to probably going to be lowering those tariffs substantially, but on April 2, we will be charging them the same tariffs they charge us,” Trump said in an interview to Breitbart News Network.

Trump has time and again called India a high-tariff country and talked about imposing reciprocal tariffs on such countries on April 2. But this is the first time he has directly mentioned that India would face tariffs on that date if it did not lower its tariffs.

India and the US are working on a bilateral trade agreement, following a decision made by Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their meeting in Washington, DC, last month. However, it seems that the US may not wait for India to lower tariffs under the proposed pact sometime in the fall, a source tracking the matter told businessline.

“While India is trying to identify items where tariffs could be lowered under the BTA and is aware that the US is interested in sectors such as automobiles, wines & spirits and agriculture, but it takes time to take all stakeholders into confidence and arrive at a decision,” the source said.

India’s import tariffs are much higher than those of the US, and it may not be possible to bring them down to the US level for all sectors, as India is a developing nation with farmers and small enterprises to protect.

The US’ simple average tariff on imports is 3.3 per cent, while India’s is over five times higher at 17 per cent, according to WTO figures. The US’ trade-weighted average tariff is 2.2 per cent, while India’s is 12 per cent.

Average applied tariffs on agricultural goods by India is much higher at 39 per cent, while US duties are at 5 per cent.

India, on its own, lowered import duties on a few products of interest to the US in this year’s Union Budget announced on February 1, including high-end motorbikes and bourbon whisky.

The US was India’s largest trading partner in FY24, with exports worth $77.51 billion and imports worth $42.19 billion.