One-sided trade with India? Not quite accurate: Ex-US treasury official counters Trump

Former US Treasury official Evan A Feigenbaum on Monday dismissed Donald Trump's claims of a lopsided trade relationship with India, arguing that the president misunderstands the facts and ignores the strategic value of the partnership.

"Could someone in the administration please brief the President of the United States on facts, history, and data, even just on the arms purchases point, where ‘they buy little from the U.S.’ is really not quite accurate," Feigenbaum wrote on X.

"He has it in his head that the United States 'gets' nothing much from this relationship, which shows a few things: (1) he lacks a principled approach that values the relationship on its own terms; (2) he lacks a strategic approach that invests in the relationship to bolster power balances in Asia or as a down payment on India's future growth and relative strength; (3) he views all relationships as transactions – with a side dose of rent-seeking – and in that calculus India just isn't very important to him; (4) he feels no urgency to ‘fix’ this; and (5) he clearly expects India to be the demandeur. This is going nowhere for the moment. And if a ‘deal’ is made on trade, the strategic overlay and substructure is irrelevant to him."

Feigenbaum's intervention came after Trump asserted that US-India trade had long been "a totally one sided disaster." Writing on Truth Social, Trump claimed: "What few people understand is that we do very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us. They sell to the US, its biggest 'client', massive amounts of goods, but we sell them very little – until now a totally one sided relationship, and it has been for many decades." He added that India buys “most of its oil and military products from Russia, very little from the US,” though “they have now offered to cut their tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late."

The Trump administration has already imposed a 25 per cent reciprocal tariff on India, plus another 25 per cent levy for its purchase of Russian oil, pushing the total duty to 50 per cent – among the highest globally. India has called the move "unjustified and unreasonable." Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said he cannot compromise on farmers, cattle-rearers, and small-scale industries, declaring: “Pressure on us may increase, but we will bear it.”

Tensions have deepened as Trump's Senior Counsellor for Trade and Manufacturing, Peter Navarro, accused "Brahmins" of profiteering “at the expense of the Indian people." Navarro said, "So I would just simply say, the Indian people, please understand what's going on here. You got Brahmins profiteering at the expense of the Indian people. We need that to stop."

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has already underscored India's firm stance. He said New Delhi has "red lines" in negotiations with Washington, and will defend the interests of farmers and small producers. On energy ties with Russia, Jaishankar questioned why the US did not apply the same standard to China and the European Union, which remain among Moscow's largest buyers of crude oil and LNG.

Bilateral trade in goods between India and the US stood at USD 131.8 billion in 2024–25, with USD 86.5 billion in Indian exports and USD 45.3 billion in imports.