India-US Trade Agreement: US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins thanked President Donald Trump for “delivering” for US farmers through the just announced India-US trade deal.
The deal will help export more American agricultural products to the huge Indian market, raise prices and pump cash into rural America, Rollins said in a post on X.
Her remarks came after US President Donald Trump announced on Monday evening (IST) that he had agreed to a trade deal with Prime Minister Narendra Modi under which the US will reduce tariffs on goods from India to 18% from 25%.
“In 2024, the U.S. agricultural trade deficit with India was $1.3 billion. India’s growing population is an important market for U.S. agricultural products, and today’s agreement will go a long way toward reducing that deficit,” Rollins said in a post on X.
“America first victory over dozens of trades for agriculture,” she said.
Earlier in a post on Truth Social, President Trump said that India will reduce trade barriers to zero and also stop buying Russian oil. An additional 25% tariff penalty imposed on Delhi for its refusal to stop buying oil from Russia will be lifted, the US president said.
This deal will go a long way in reducing the US agricultural trade deficit with India.
The announcement comes less than a week after India and the European Union struck a landmark trade deal that ended nearly two decades of ongoing talks.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in X that he was “delighted” that an agreement had been reached with the US.
Trade relations between India and the US have been strained after the US last August imposed 50 percent tariffs on goods from India — the highest of any country in Asia. The Trump administration also imposed a 25 percent penalty on India’s purchase of Russian oil.
Under the deal, Russian oil-related tariffs will be eliminated as part of the deal and other tariffs will be reduced to 18 percent, a White House official told the BBC.
Prime Minister Modi thanked President Trump on behalf of India’s 1.4 billion people for the “wonderful” announcement.
“When two major economies and the world’s largest democracies work together, it benefits our people and opens up huge opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation,” he said.