US President Donald Trump said on Friday that there will be no change to the India US trade deal, despite the Supreme Court of the United States striking down his earlier reciprocal tariffs. “Nothing changes, they’ll be paying tariffs, and we will not be paying tariffs,” Trump said when asked about the impact of the ruling on the agreement being finalised with India.
The Supreme Court, in a 6 to 3 decision authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, invalidated Trump’s worldwide tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The court ruled that the 1977 statute does not grant the president the authority to impose tariffs.
“Our task today is to decide only whether the power to ‘regulate … importation,’ as granted to the president in IEEPA, embraces the power to impose tariffs. It does not,” Roberts wrote.
Trump bashes Supreme Court ruling, announces new tariffs
Angered by the ruling, Trump announced a new 10% global tariff under a different legal provision. However, he maintained that the India US arrangement remains unaffected.
“So, the deal with India is they pay tariffs. This is a reversal from what it used to be,” Trump said. “I think Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a great gentleman, a great man, actually, but he was much smarter than the people that he was against in terms of the United States. He was ripping us off, India.”
He added, “So we made a deal with India, it’s a fair deal now, and we are not paying tariffs to them and they are paying tariffs. We did a little flip.”
India to pay 10% tariff
A White House official said the newly announced 10% global tariff will apply to India and remain in effect until another legal authority is invoked.
“Yes, 10% until another authority is invoked,” the official said when asked whether India would face the new levy and whether it would replace tariffs previously imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
The official also urged all US trade partners to adhere strictly to existing trade agreements, emphasising that Washington expects countries to abide by their commitments.
Tariffs dispute
Trump has used tariffs as a key economic and foreign policy tool, arguing that they help correct trade imbalances. The Supreme Court’s ruling, however, reaffirmed that the US Constitution grants Congress, not the president, the authority to levy taxes and tariffs.
Calling the judgment “terrible” and “totally defective,” Trump said he was “ashamed of certain members of the court.”
Meanwhile, an interim trade agreement between India and the United States is likely to be signed in March and implemented in April, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday.
Also read: US Supreme Court quashes Trump’s tariff orders: Does it mean zero tariff on India? Explained
