New Delhi: US President Donald Trump has introduced new excessive tariffs of over 25 p.c on many imports from India. However for now, necessary Indian merchandise like smartphones, laptops, and medicines are usually not included in these tariffs. That is excellent news for Indian exporters as a result of this stuff are price greater than USD 25 billion and make up a big a part of India’s exports to the US.

Within the monetary 12 months 2024-25, India despatched about USD 14.6 billion price of digital items and USD 10.5 billion price of medicines to the US. Collectively, that’s practically 30 p.c of all Indian exports to America.

Trump mentioned these items are presently exempt, however there’s a risk that tariffs on medicines might go as much as 200 p.c, and electronics may additionally face tariffs sooner or later.

Due to the exemption, India’s exports to the US have grown since January 2025, particularly smartphones, which presently have zero import tax within the US. From January to June 2025, the US purchased greater than 20 p.c of India’s whole exports, up from the same old 17–18 p.c.

Within the April–June quarter of 2025-26, India’s exports to the US made up about 23 p.c of all Indian exports, much like the earlier quarter. That is regardless of India’s total exports rising lower than 2 p.c within the first quarter of this 12 months and falling greater than 4 p.c within the final quarter of 2024-25.

Trump’s tariff transfer is partly as a result of he thinks India’s commerce guidelines are unfair to the US, and since India has shut ties with Russia, particularly in defence and vitality. Trump warned there might be extra penalties if India continues to purchase so much from Russia.

India’s position within the expanded BRICS group, which added 5 new international locations in January 2024, additionally performed an element in Trump’s determination.

Even with these points, each international locations are nonetheless speaking a few commerce settlement. For now, vitality merchandise like petroleum, price over $4 billion final 12 months, are additionally not affected by the tariffs.

In line with authorities information, India’s exports to the US went up practically 23 p.c in comparison with final 12 months, reaching USD 25.5 billion within the April–June 2025 interval. Complete commerce between the 2 international locations was USD 32.4 billion for that point, and for the entire monetary 12 months 2024-25, commerce exceeded USD 86 billion.