From February 2025, when India and the US decided to deepen trade ties, to 50 percent tariffs imposed on India to cutting the tariffs to 18 percent, it has been a year of ups and downs for two of the largest economies in the world. Here’s how the India-US trade relations have played out.
February 13, 2025: A joint statement by India and the US said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump agreed to deepen the US-India trade relationship. As per the statement, the leaders set a bold new goal to more than double bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030 from the current over $191 billion
March 4, 2025: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal visited Washington DC and held bilateral meetings with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick
April 2, 2025: Trump announced an additional import duty of 26 percent (10 percent baseline tariff and 16 per cent reciprocal tariff) on Indian goods
April 9, 2025: The US suspended the 26 percent reciprocal tariff on Indian goods for 90 days (until July 9, 2025)
April 23-29, 2025: The then Indian chief negotiator Rajesh Agrawal (now Commerce Secretary) visited Washington for the first in-person meeting with US counterparts for a proposed trade pact
May 17-20, 2025: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal again visited Washington and met USTR Greer and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick
June 4-10, 2025: A US delegation, led by the Additional US Trade Representative Brendan Lynch, visited India for week-long discussions
June 26, 2025: An Indian delegation, led by Agarwal, again visited Washington for the next round of talks to bridge differences before the July 9 deadline
June 27, 2025: US President Donald Trump said America is going to have a "very big" trade deal with India
July 31, 2025: The US announced a 25 per cent duty to be effective from August 7, 2025 (9.30 am IST). He then posted how tariffs are making America rich again
August 6, 2025: Trump slapped an additional 25 per cent tariff on goods coming from India as penalty for New Delhi's continued purchase of Russian oil. Following this, the total tariff on Indian goods, barring a small exemption list, rose to 50 percent, to be effective from August 27, 2025
August 7, 2025: Trump posted on Truth Social, excited about the money coming into the US through tariffs
By the month of October 2025, six formal rounds of talks had been held between the two countries.
December 10, 2025: A delegation led by Deputy US Trade Representative (USTR) Rick Switzer arrived in Delhi for a two-day trade talk with his Indian counterpart Rajesh Agrawal
January 12, 2026: The US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor asserted that both sides are actively engaged to firm up a trade deal
January 27, 2026: The India-EU deal was announced, termed as the ‘mother of all deals’. Elimination of tariffs on almost 97 percent of European exports to India was announced.
February 2, 2026: PM Modi and President Trump agreed on a trade deal to bring down the reciprocal tariff on Indian goods to 18 per cent from the current 25 per cent, following a phone conversation between the two.