US To Lower Tariffs on India Soon: Trump

Chennai: US President Donald Trump said that he will lower the tariffs on India, including the penalty tariffs and have a trade deal soon.

“Right now, the tariffs are high on India because of Russian oil. And they stopped doing the Russian oil. It’s been reduced very substantially. Yeah, we are going to be bringing the tariffs down,” Trump said while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office.

According to the data from Kpler, India's Russian oil imports stood at 1.48 million barrels per day (bpd) in October against 1.9 million bpd in the first nine months of 2025.

However, Russian oil shipments are expected to slow from November after the U.S. sanctioned two major Russian oil suppliers last month. This has prompted Indian refiners to pause new orders and look for alternatives.

Along with a penalty tariff of 25 per cent for buying Russian oil, India is in the highest tariff bracket of 50 per cent among the trading partners of the US. The US has been putting pressure on India to stop import of Russian oil, which it says is helping Russia finance the war in Ukraine.

Trump further said that India and the US were nearing a trade deal. “You know, we are making a deal with India, a much different deal than we had in the past. So right now, they don’t love me, but they will love us again. We are getting a fair deal, just a fair trade deal. We had pretty unfair trade deals,” he said while administering the oath of office to Sergio Gor, the new US Ambassador to India.

“They are very good negotiators, … you have to take a look at that, if you would please,” he told Gor.

“But we are getting close, I think we are pretty close to doing a deal that’s good for everybody,” he added. India has been the first country, which evinced interest in having a trade deal with the US since Trump announced the ‘Liberation Day Tariffs’ in April. However, the negotiations were struck due to a few red lines —on agriculture, patent, digital rules, and procurement.