Trump Says U.S. Will Cut Tariffs on Indian Goods to 18 Percent

President Trump said Monday that the United States will lower its tariffs on Indian goods to 18 percent after a phone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who he said agreed to stop buying Russian oil. The announcement, reported by the Associated Press, CBS News, CNBC and Al Jazeera, followed months of pressure on New Delhi over its energy purchases.

Before the change, U.S. tariffs on Indian goods stood at 50 percent, according to Al Jazeera: a 25 percent “reciprocal” rate plus a separate 25 percent duty tied to India’s Russian oil purchases. CBS News described tariffs of up to 50 percent imposed last year. Trump said the reciprocal rate would fall from 25 percent to 18 percent, as the AP, CBS and CNBC reported. A White House official told Al Jazeera, citing Reuters, that the penalty duty is being rescinded, and CNBC reported that Washington would reportedly waive the additional 25 percent tariff.

Trump announced the deal on Truth Social. “He agreed to stop buying Russian Oil, and to buy much more from the United States and, potentially, Venezuela,” he wrote of Modi, according to the AP and CBS News. He also said India would reduce its own tariffs and non-tariff barriers on American goods to zero and would buy more than $500 billion in U.S. energy, technology, agricultural and other products, according to the AP, CBS and CNBC. Trump said the arrangement will help end the war in Ukraine.

Modi welcomed the news on X, writing that “Made in India products will now have a reduced tariff of 18%,” and thanked Trump on behalf of the 1.4 billion people of India, CBS News and Al Jazeera reported. CNBC noted that Modi did not mention Russian oil in his post, and the AP’s report said it included no direct statement from the Indian government confirming the other terms Trump described.

Analysts urged caution on the details. CNBC quoted Evan Feigenbaum saying “the devil is in the details” and calling the $500 billion purchase target “kind of a stretch,” and the report gave no timeline for it. CNBC added that the 18 percent rate is slightly lower than Pakistan’s 19 percent and the 20 percent levies on Vietnam and Bangladesh.

The announcement also follows a free trade agreement that India finalized with the European Union about a week earlier, according to CNBC and Al Jazeera.

The scope of the arrangement therefore remains unsettled: Trump described zero Indian tariffs and a $500 billion purchase pledge, while the Indian side’s public statement so far covers the 18 percent rate.