Several countries, including India, wait in anticipation as United States President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs are set to be announced today. The White House said on Tuesday that highly anticipated tariffs announced by President Donald Trump are set to take effect sooner than some had expected–as in immediately.
It further said that with the announcement of tariffs, Trump will seek to “address decades of unfair trade practices”. According to the White House, the tariffs will be closely watched and studied around the world, including in India, said the White House.
President Trump has hyped the announcement as “Liberation Day” but has sought to dial down anxiety about it, saying the tariffs will be “more lenient than reciprocal” and “kind.” No details about the breadth and scope of the coming tariffs are available yet.
“Tomorrow, the President will be addressing the decades of unfair trade practices that have ripped our country off and American workers off,” Karoline Levitt, the White House spokesperson, said on Tuesday.
“It has hollowed out our middle class. It has destroyed our heartland, and the President is focused on re-shifting our global economy to ensure that America is once again the manufacturing superpower of the world.”
“Certainly, the president is always up to take a phone call, always up for a good negotiation,” she commented further in response to a question about the potential for negotiations following the announcement. “But he is very much focused on fixing the wrongs of the past and showing that American workers have a fair shake.”
Reports have suggested that discussions among his aides have focused on several options: a 15 percent tax on the Dirty 15” countries and entities, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has described them — or it could be a universal tariff imposed on all.
A notice in the federal register has identified these countries and entities as possible targets: India, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam.
Trump told reporters Monday some countries have begun dialing down their tariffs in anticipation of the announcement, which, he added, included India and Europe. But, as the spokesperson indicated, the White House is open to talks.
Trump first announced his intention to bring such a tariff system in his inauguration address to end “destructive trade deficits,” and he has since said it will come into effect on April 2 — and not on April 1 before the “April Fool” implications. These tariffs will be over and above those announced by Trump on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China—25 percent for the former and two and 10 percent on the latter — and 25 percent on all imported automobiles and auto parts.
He has not yet offered clues to the size of the upcoming tariffs or the target countries. But President Trump has frequently mentioned India for its tariffs, which he has called “brutal,” and the trade deficit. The US goods trade deficit with India was $45.7 billion in 2024, a 5.4 percent increase ($2.4 billion) over 2023, according to the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), the top trade negotiator for the US.
Total goods trade between the two countries was an estimated $129.2 billion in 2024. American goods exports to India were $41.8 billion, up 3.4 percent ($1.4 billion) from 2023, and total US goods imports from India totaled $87.4 billion in 2024, up 4.5 percent ($3.7 billion) from 2023.
India and the US have held trade talks in the lead-up to the anticipated reciprocal tariffs, but neither side has divulged details. “I think it’s going to work out very well between India and our country,” he said Friday when asked specifically about trade talks with India.
“I’ll probably be more lenient than reciprocal, because if I was reciprocal, that would be very tough for people,” Trump said in an interview with Newsmax last week. Once again, he offered no details. “I know there are some exceptions, and it’s an ongoing discussion, but not too many, not too many exceptions,” the president added.
While speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump stated that he’d “settled” on a plan for sweeping new tariffs to be announced midweek, catching some White House officials by surprise: If the president had indeed arrived at a final decision for the tariffs, it hadn’t yet been widely shared inside the building, as per CNN.
Still unclear is whether Trump plans to levy individual tariff rates on all US trading partners, put tariffs on only some countries, or apply a universal tariff—perhaps as high as 20 percent—on all imports. Trump’s advisers are publicly supportive of Trump’s tariff agenda, but they differ in approach and scope behind the scenes.
Meanwhile, recently, Trump said that he had heard that India was dropping its tariffs on American goods substantially. “I think I heard that India just a little while ago is going to be dropping its tariffs very substantially, and I said, Why didn’t somebody do this a long time ago?'” he said.
Trump was asked if his tariffs—which are to be effective from Wednesday—may push countries to side with China, to which he promptly said that the tariffs would actually help the countries do better. He did not explain how that would be.
“No, I’m not worried about it. I think they have a chance of doing better with the tariffs. It can actually help them in a certain way, and I think a lot of them will drop their tariffs because they’ve been unfairly tariffing the United States for years,” he said.
The US President said that the European Union had dropped its tariffs on US-made cars to 2.5 percent. “If you look at the European Union- on cars, the European Union already dropped their tariff down to 2.5 per cent. It was announced a couple of days ago, which is a very small tariff the United States charged,” he said.
Trump will unveil a new tariff plan on April 2, which he has dubbed “Liberation Day,” in his first Rose Garden press conference of his second term, CNN reported.
(With agencies Inputs)
