India Working To Appease Trump, Including Allowing In Elon’s Starlink

India-West News Desk

NEW DELHI – India is among the few nations actively working to lower tariffs and win over President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called the country a “tariff king” and a “tariff abuser” while vowing to retaliate. Both nations have begun negotiations on an early trade deal to resolve tariff disputes.

Reuters has reported that India is open to cutting tariffs on over half of U.S. imports worth $23 billion. Since February, it noted, the Indian government has taken multiple steps to align itself with Trump’s demands.

New Delhi has committed to boosting its energy purchases from the US to $25 billion, up from $15 billion last year. Trump also stated that he was facilitating the potential sale of F-35 stealth fighters to India. These agreements followed White House discussions between Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India is looking to increase its purchases of U.S. defense equipment by billions of dollars and could soon make the U.S. its top supplier of oil and gas, Reuters reported.

In a move to ease trade tensions with the U.S., India announced it would scrap the 6% digital advertisement tax on April 1, the finance minister said on March 25. The decision is expected to benefit Google, Meta, and Amazon, which had raised concerns over the levy.

India reduced its tariffs on bourbon whisky from 150% to 100%, benefiting brands such as Suntory’s Jim Beam.

India’s budget  on February 1, slashed basic customs duties on luxury cars, solar cells, and machinery. The peak import tariff was reduced from 150% to 70%, while average tariffs dropped below 11% from 13%.

Though an additional domestic tax, the Agriculture Infrastructure Development Cess kept the effective rates unchanged, India has pledged to phase it out as trade negotiations advance.

Elon Musk’s Starlink is nearing final regulatory approval in India after partnering with Reliance and Airtel for satellite broadband services.