Trump admin continues tariff tirade against India even as US intel chief, VP Vance likely to visit Delhi

New Delhi: Two heavyweights from President Donald Trump’s administration in Washington DC may visit New Delhi soon, even as India remains at the receiving end of the White House’s tariff tirade for its high import duties on exports from the United States.

US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, already on a tour of the Indo-Pacific region, will arrive in New Delhi soon. She is going to be the first top official of the Trump Administration to visit India. She will join Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval as well as the spymasters of Canada, the United Kingdom and several other nations in a conclave in New Delhi on March 16.

New Delhi and Washington DC are also discussing an early visit by Trump’s Vice President J D Vance to India. Politico reported that Vance might visit New Delhi this month itself. He and his wife, Usha Vance, whose parents had migrated from India to the US, had earlier called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Paris. He was also present when Trump hosted Modi in the White House last month.

The Trump Administration, however, continued its rant against the high tariff India imposes on exports from the US.

“If you look at India, 150% tariff on American alcohol. (Do) you think that's helping Kentucky bourbon be exported to India? I don't think so,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in Washington, D.C., early on Wednesday (Indian Standard Time). She was responding to a question from a journalist on the US-Canada tariff war. Not only India, but she also targeted Japan for high tariffs on exports from the US while responding to the question.

“President (Donald) Trump believes in reciprocity, and it is about dang time that we have a president who actually looks out for the interests of American businesses and workers, and all he's asking for at the end of the day are fair and balanced trade practices,” she said.

Trump repeatedly criticised India for imposing high tariffs on US exports over the past several weeks, just as he had been doing in his first term in the White House.

Modi met Trump at the White House on February 13, and the two leaders agreed to negotiate a trade agreement. They set the target to conclude negotiations, at least for the first part of the agreement, by fall 2025. Trump, however, continued his rants on India’s high tariffs on exports from the US. While delivering an address to the American Congress on March 4, he announced that the US would impose reciprocal tariffs on imports from India and other countries from April 2.

Trump made the announcement even as Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goyal was in Washington D.C. to set the stage for starting the negotiation for the trade deal.

He then said that New Delhi, after being “exposed” by his administration, had agreed to lower the tariffs on the products India imports from the US.