The US Supreme Court has completely rejected Trump’s tariffs. After a few hours, Trump has announced a new global tariff on goods imported into America, after which India will now face a reciprocal tariff of 10 percent instead of 25 percent. According to Trump’s announcement, the temporary import surcharge of 10 percent is for 150 days from February 24. Let us also tell you what the US Supreme Court’s decision and Trump’s announcement of new global tariffs mean for India?
What is tariff?
These are custom or import duties that a country imposes on goods purchased from other countries. The importer has to pay this duty to the government. Generally, companies pass this tax on the end user or consumer. Import duty makes goods expensive in the importing country. Apart from this, some other factors also play a role in this.
Reciprocal Tariff
The term Reciprocal Tariff was first used by the US. The Trump Administration announced these duties on about 60 countries including India on April 2, 2025. Its purpose was to provide a level playing field to US exporters.
For example, if a country imposes
Now how much will be the reciprocal tariff on India?
On April 2, 2025, the US announced 26 percent reciprocal tariffs. Later in July, the US announced 25 percent RT on Indian goods entering the US market from August 7, 2025. In August last year, the Trump administration announced an additional 25 percent tariff on India’s purchases of Russian crude oil, taking the total RT on India to 50 percent. After agreeing on the framework for an interim trade deal in February, the US announced that it would reduce the RT on India to 18 per cent and remove an additional 25 per cent punitive tariff. So right now, 25 percent RT is being imposed on Indian goods in the US.
With the US Supreme Court striking down President Donald Trump’s global tariffs and Washington issuing a new order imposing a temporary 10 per cent import surcharge, Indian goods will now attract only 10 per cent reciprocal levy from February 24, 2026.
For example, if a product attracts 5 percent MFN duty in the US, now an additional 10 percent will be imposed, making the effective duty 15 percent. Earlier, it was 5 plus 25 percent.
Trump’s February 20 announcement said that I am imposing a temporary import surcharge of 10 percent on goods imported into the United States for 150 days, which will come into effect on February 24, 2026, at 12:01 pm Eastern Standard Time.
A source said that instead of different RTs for different countries, now there is 10 percent for all those who used to come under RTs.
From February 7 to February 24, 2026, the Russia-Oil penalty was removed, reducing the additional duty to 25 percent. In the joint statement of February 6, there was a proposal to reduce this reciprocal tariff to 18 percent, but this change has not been implemented yet.
From February 24, 2026, a temporary across-the-board 10 percent tariff will be applicable for 150 days in addition to the MFN duty, replacing the earlier reciprocal tariff structure.
The question is also what will happen after 150 days? According to experts, it is not yet clear what tariff the US will impose on countries like India after 150 days.
India-US trade pact
The Indian team is scheduled to meet its counterparts in Washington on February 23, 2026, to finalize the legal text for the first phase of the trade agreement between the two countries. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on February 20 that India and the US can sign the deal next month, and it could start in April.
Expert opinion
Think tank GTRI said that since the RT on Indian goods has reduced from 25 percent to 10 percent, India should rethink the trade pact with the US. India had agreed to reduce the tariff for America because Washington had reduced the RT on India to 18 percent, but now America has reduced the RT to 10 percent for all countries. GTRI founder Ajay Srivastava said that deals are not charity. Both sides should benefit. Now, there is a need to re-evaluate India’s advantages.
Trump on deal with India
Trump said that there will be no change in the trade deal with India after the Supreme Court’s decision against his huge tariffs, as he announced the imposition of an additional 10 percent global levy on goods imported into the US in response to this decision.
Goods falling in exempted category
A fact sheet released by the White House said that some goods will not be subject to temporary import duties because of the needs of the US economy or to ensure that the duty more effectively solves the fundamental international payments problems facing the US.
These include some essential minerals, metals used in currency and bullion, energy and energy products; Natural resources and fertilizers that cannot be grown, mined, or otherwise produced in the United States or that cannot be grown, mined, or produced in sufficient quantities to meet domestic demand; some farm products, including beef, tomatoes, and oranges; Pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients.
Other items include some electronics goods; Includes passenger vehicles, certain light trucks, certain medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, buses, and certain parts of passenger vehicles, light trucks, heavy-duty vehicles, buses, and certain aerospace products.
Sectoral Tariff on India
Sectoral tariffs (50% on steel, aluminium, copper, and 25% on some auto components) will continue.
Why is the US imposing tariffs?
The US has alleged that it is facing a huge trade deficit with India, and has accused New Delhi of imposing high tariffs on American goods, which it says restricts US exports to the Indian market.
How much is the bilateral trade between the two countries?
During 2021-25, the US was India’s largest trading partner in goods. US’s share in India’s total exports is about 18 percent, 6.22 percent in imports and 10.73 percent in two-way trade. In 2024-25, two-way trade is projected to reach USD 131.8 billion (USD 86.5 billion exports and USD 45.3 billion imports).
With the US, India has a trade surplus (difference between imports and exports) of USD 41 billion in 2024-25. It was USD 35.32 billion in 2023-24 and USD 27.7 billion in 2022-23.
In services, India exported about USD 28.7 billion and imported USD 25.5 billion, resulting in a surplus of USD 3.2 billion. Overall, India’s total trade surplus with the US was approximately USD 44.4 billion.
Main products traded between countries
In 2024, India’s main exports to the US are pharmaceutical formulations and biologicals (USD 8.1 billion), telecom instruments (USD 6.5 billion), precious and semi-precious stones (USD 5.3 billion), petroleum products (USD 4.1 billion), vehicles and auto components (USD 2.8 billion), gold and other precious metals jewelery (USD 3.2 billion), cotton ready-made garments, accessories. (USD 2.8 billion), and iron and steel products (USD 2.7 billion).
Imports included crude oil (USD 4.5 billion), petroleum products (USD 3.6 billion), coal, coke (USD 3.4 billion), cut and polished diamonds (USD 2.6 billion), electric machinery (USD 1.4 billion), aircraft, spacecraft and parts (USD 1.3 billion), and gold (USD 1.3 billion). According to estimates, imports of US services from India in calendar year 2024 will reach USD 40.6 billion, of which import of computer/information services was USD 16.7 billion and import of business management/consulting was USD 7.5 billion.