US President Donald Trump has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to move towards a fair bilateral trading relationship and buy more American-made security equipment in keeping with his much-publicised grouse against India for charging “tremendously high” import tariffs on American products.
“The President emphasised the importance of India increasing its procurement of American-made security equipment and moving toward a fair bilateral trading relationship,” per a readout of Trump’s telephone conversation with Modi on Monday shared by the White House.
Modi and Trump also discussed plans for the Indian PM to visit the White House and India hosting Quad Leaders for the first time later this year.
“The leaders discussed plans for Prime Minister Modi to visit the White House, underscoring the strength of the friendship and strategic ties between our nations,” the readout noted.
This was Modi’s first interaction with Trump after he officially took over as the US President on January 20. Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar had attended Trump’s inaugural function in Washington DC at the invitation of the US government.
Trump’s emphasis on a fair bilateral trading relationship in his call with Modi was in line with his focus on reducing America’s trade deficit with partner countries. He had described India as `tariff king’ during his election campaign and warned of reciprocal tariffs on products exported by the country.
In his America First Trade Policy brought out shortly after his swearing in earlier this week, Trump said that the US Department of Commerce should recommend appropriate measures, such as a global supplemental tariff or other policies, to remedy the US’ trade deficits.
The US is India’s top export destination with exports to the country valued at $77.5 billion in FY24 leading to a trade surplus of about $35 billion.
The US has been long urging India to buy more defence and security equipment from the country and also simultaneously source less from Russia which is facing economic sanctions from the Western world for its war against Ukraine.
The White House described the call between Trump and Modi as productive where the two discussed expanding and deepening cooperation. “They also discussed a range of regional issues, including security in the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East, and Europe,” it stated.
India’s top exports to the US include engineering goods, electronic goods, gems and jewellery, pharmaceutical products, ready made garments, light crude oil and petroleum, electrical, and others.
India’s imports from the US include mineral fuels & oils, pearls, precious, & semi-precious stones, nuclear reactors boilers & machinery, electrical machinery, and others.