Trump Tariff Bomb : Average duty on Indian goods rises to 50%, threatening $63.5 bn in trade --- India’s exports to US in jeopardy

The European Union, which vocally criticises India's oil imports, remains the number one buyer of Russian gas. In June 2025 alone, EU nations paid over 1.2 billion for Russian gas.

India is expected to retain around 10 percent of its trade, owing to its dominant market share in categories like synthetic diamonds and cumin, which account for over 60 percent of US imports.

But the remaining exports are exposed to heightened competition.

“The punishment for those countries that continue to take big volumes of Russian energy… would also hurt the United States’ economy in a material way,” ---

said Clayton Seigle, senior fellow in energy and geopolitics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan US think tank.

So far five rounds of negotiations have been held between the two countries. For the next round of talks, the US team is coming to India on August 25. The talks will go on till August 29.

India now faces one of the highest tariff burdens in the world, on par with BRICS partner Brazil, which has also been targeted under similar terms.

Over half of India’s exports to US now in jeopardy under Trump’s tariff hike

Average duty on Indian goods rises to 50%, threatening $63.5 bn in trade despite exemptions for pharma, auto, and tech

Among the most affected sectors is textiles, where India competes directly with Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, and the Philippines—all of whom have been assigned lower duty rates of 19–20 percent. The higher tariff could significantly erode India’s competitiveness in apparel, home furnishings, and other labour-intensive goods.

Although the US has exempted key sectors such as steel, aluminium, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and automobiles, the tariff hike will still impact nearly 60 percent of India’s $91 billion exports to the US—amounting to around $63.5 billion in vulnerable trade.   

Senior Vice President of the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) and former Deputy US Trade Representative Wendy Cutler also suggested that officials in Delhi and Washington should try to work out their differences in private.

"Regrettably, the US-India dispute is escalating, with the President now threatening an additional 25 per cent tariff. This will essentially cut off most Indian exports to the US," Cutler said.  

Hypocrisy. Much of the outrage stems not from what India is doing but from who is doing it. India's growing influence in global energy markets is threatening to upset old hierarchies. So, while other countries quietly continue business with Moscow, India becomes the convenient scapegoat.

It's not about morality. It's about optics and politics.  

Between December 2022 and July 2025, here's how Russian crude exports stack up:

China: 47%

India: 38%

EU nations + Turkey: 6% each

So, while India is among the top buyers, it is certainly not alone. The West's own allies and rivals continue to import Russian energy in large volumes.