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The India US Tariffs dispute deepens as Donald Trump announces a 25% duty on Indian imports, coupled with penalties over New Delhi’s continued oil and arms trade with Russia. While India has not officially responded, markets are jittery and economists warn of a possible dent to India's GDP. The India US Tariffs have sparked fears of a wider trade war and raised questions about future diplomacy. Industry veteran Marutha Bharati, with 25 years of experience in international shipping, joins us on Oneindia to break down how the India US Tariffs could reshape the business landscape between the two nations. Watch this insightful conversation between Marutha Bharathi from US and Oneindia’s Pankaj Mishra.

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Transcript
00:00Well, I understand India no longer is going to be buying oil from Russia.
00:04That's what I heard. I don't know if that's right or not, but that's a good step.
00:08We'll see what happens.
00:09A good step.
00:11There you heard Donald Trump suggesting that India stopping taking oil from Russia
00:16is a good step in the direction.
00:19New Delhi has declined to comment on the matter, saying it has no knowledge about it.
00:24But what remains a fact is that Donald Trump has imposed a 25% tariff on Indian imports,
00:32along with an unspecified penalty for India's continued trade with Russia.
00:36Experts warn this move could impact India's GDP with forecasts already revised downward.
00:42Markets reacted sharply fearing a strain on US-India ties.
00:46While New Delhi has made concessions in past trade talks,
00:49Trump cites India's Russian oils and arms purchases as a trigger.
00:55To understand the real-world impact of these tariffs on trade and businesses
00:59between India and the United States better,
01:02we are joined today by Maruta Bharti from San Francisco in the United States of America.
01:07Maruta has been part of the international shipping and logistic industry since 2000,
01:13bringing over 25 years of expertise to this conversation.
01:16Much of his work has focused on India-America trade ties
01:21and working directly with clients who import and export a wide range of commodities between the two nations.
01:28From shipping to customs filings, warehousing to trucking,
01:32Maruta has a deep, hands-on understanding of how decisions like tariffs and penalties
01:38trickle down to affect businesses, entrepreneurs and everyday supply chains.
01:44Welcome, Maruta. Let's start by asking how serious is this disruption and who feels it's first?
01:52Good morning, Pakaj. Thanks for the opportunity to share my opinion on this important topic.
01:58Yes, it is unfortunately going to have a serious impact.
02:02To understand who it's going to affect and how serious it's going to be,
02:07we also have to understand how important is merchandise exports specifically for India and specifically to the U.S.
02:16I would go a little bit more into the details a little later.
02:20But at this stage, I would say it is very, very important.
02:23It is not something that doesn't mean much to Indian companies and businesses and entrepreneurs.
02:31So that's definitely a serious impact.
02:34And to add, you know, the way it started about a few months back when President Trump originally announced,
02:42you know, these measures of tariffs on multiple countries,
02:47it looked like it was more positive in India's direction because we had a more favorable tariff compared to our competition countries.
02:58You know, so I was a little bit more hopeful that this could lead to a moment like China plus one on steroids for India.
03:06You know, so it might help competitively.
03:10But unfortunately, you know, things didn't seem to have gone the way we expected.
03:14Right.
03:15We are in this situation, which is, you know, unfortunate.
03:19Right.
03:20What kind of impact are you feeling on the industry that you belong to logistics, shipping and supply chains?
03:28This will have a, may not have an impact on day one, but people from India who are exporting and our customers here who are buying have already started changing their plans
03:43because they have to, first of all, figure out what's going to be the cost that they need to include in their pricing, their coating to the customers.
03:51You know, how is it going to be in terms of demand for their products with the additional tariffs?
03:55So they got to plan a lot more.
03:57So it's a little kind of a wait and watch situation as of now.
04:05Right.
04:06Maru, you have been in the business for the last more than two decades now.
04:11India started taking oil from Russia long time ago.
04:15Now, United States getting angry with that.
04:18Does that make sense?
04:19Is that fair for a country whose energy consumption is high due to the sheer size of its population and size of the nation?
04:27I mean, I would say, I would slightly disagree with that characterization because, you know, India's purchase of oil from Russia isn't actually since long back.
04:42You know, our different purchases have since forever, but our oil purchase until about 2021 was just about one or two percent of our oil coming from Russia.
04:53So it just, you know, with the sanctions and then, you know, and India got a deep discount of 20 to 40 dollars per barrel.
05:00So it made a lot of sense for India to buy.
05:03And I remember Jay Shankar, our external affairs minister, mentioning in the forum in Europe, you know, saying, you guys are paying too, you know.
05:11So why should India be filled out?
05:13So it made a lot of sense to buy at that stage, you know, because...
05:16It was a post-COVID scenario also.
05:18Yes, a post-COVID scenario.
05:19Yeah, yeah.
05:20So, yeah, it made a lot of sense at that time, but situation has changed.
05:24Europe has drastically reduced their purchase from Russia, you know.
05:31So, it's kind of become an irritant now that India has gone from one to 30 odd percent, you know.
05:38So, and especially considering that the price differential, you know, between the Russian oil and the international availability,
05:45it's shrunk a lot, you know, it used to be 20 to 40 dollars.
05:49It's today, in a month to month, it probably is hours around 3 to 10 dollars at the max, you know.
05:54So, so, so, it's a little bit of an irritant, you know, India has to, you know, get through this phase.
06:01Right.
06:02So, if I may ask, Maratha, do you think that India can or it should continue its trade with Russia?
06:08Has that bargaining chip still stayed with India?
06:11I mean, India's trade with Russia has never been a problem.
06:16It's the, it's sometimes it feels like the disproportionate nature of our trade maybe is irritating to the, to the Western allies and the US specifically, you know, because.
06:26Also, from an India's point of view too, China and Russia has become very close and China is, of course, India's biggest adversary in the world stage.
06:36So, so, so it maybe is not the best of idea to continue to build on some, I mean, even, even from India perspective, our own foreign affairs policy seem to have tended towards reducing dependence on China in Russia over the last 20 years.
06:55Our military purchase from Russia has considerably dropped, you know, from about 70% to now only about 30 odd percent.
07:03So, but something seems to have changed in 2022 and I think, you know, we probably, maybe it's a bad timing now, but we'll have to probably do about this, you know, so.
07:15Absolutely. India too is maintaining, you know, caution here. I was watching the press conference by Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday and very closely guarded the statement given out from New Delhi.
07:31Manutha, being a part, again, from the supply chain mechanism and the shipping companies as well, you deal with them.
07:41India relies heavily on imported crude oil covering almost about 85% of its needs with a significant portion that is over 95% transported by foreign-owned ships.
07:54While the Shipping Corporation of India, the SEI and some private companies operate a limited number of tankers, they often do so through joint ventures with Indian private entities.
08:06What impact do you think these tariffs can have on an arrangement like this for India and for entrepreneurs like you?
08:16The shipping ownership arrangement for tankers and generally ship owners in India, you know, it won't change too much with these tariffs.
08:28It may not have a direct impact, but it is, I mean, to make a point, you know, it is an open secret among the shipping industry folks, you know,
08:37that owning Indian ships and maintaining Indian flagships are not easy, it is not cheap, you know, ships are very expensive, $150 million each, you know,
08:49and then we have very high financing costs and maintenance and taxation and regulations are not very favorable.
08:57But there is also, from a tanker oil, the crude carrying tankers, from that perspective, the shipping industry, you know, the ship owners in India haven't really had a very good deal
09:12because, you know, they don't have any exclusive rights to carry this oil from, you know, given contracts given by the Indian government-owned oil marketing companies, you know.
09:24So, so, so they are, so a lot of the Russian crude oil especially is moving on something called Shadow Fleet.
09:31These are very multi-owned shipping ships, you know, people don't know really who owns them.
09:38They keep changing the registration from one country to another to make it difficult.
09:43They also do, you know, turning off AAS, AAS is something like a GPS for a car, you know.
09:49So, it becomes tough to track these ships.
09:52There are a lot of these things that happen that make it difficult for, these are all intended basically to skirt the sanctions, you know.
10:00So, it's not a good time for Indian ship owner, you know, to compete with this kind of interest.
10:08And it is not, it is not in India's interest too, to get involved in this kind of murky Russian oil transportation.
10:17Okay. Okay. Okay. And the association with these private entities, does that help? Does that not escalate the cost?
10:25Or is it too difficult to obviously ownership and then operate?
10:28Yeah, it is, it is too difficult. And sometimes management and it sometimes makes sense to do it that way, you know.
10:38So, I won't, yeah, I don't think so. That's a particularly a negative.
10:42All right. Okay. So, what went wrong then? I mean, if we talk about, if we come back home to the actual reason, what went wrong for this tariff to come to 25% along with the penalties?
10:57Back in India, there are all sorts of speculations going on. Trump, Modi, Dosti, their friendship about India-U.S. ties.
11:06Is the Indian citizenry worried unnecessarily? Are we worried unnecessarily? Or is there more to it than what meets the eye?
11:17See, firstly, let's understand the India-U.S. relationship is strong.
11:21And that has been structurally strong and it will continue to be strong. And I don't think that there is anything going to change in that trajectory.
11:28So, there are momentary challenges that we have. And I think it's mainly because of maybe India having expectations that, you know, things will be a little bit more favorable than they thought.
11:40So, they may be slow rolled the negotiations a little bit. Maybe that kind of irritated. Some of the commentary that's coming from the Treasury Secretary and in the U.S. media, you know, is not very favorable commentary about India, you know.
11:58Right.
11:58So, I think there's a little bit of an irritation there, you know. So, but the good thing with the Trump administration is that they are generally very nimble. They will change their opinion pretty fast.
12:10So, I won't write anything off, you know. And we are on strong wicket. But then, you know, I think maybe we have lost a little bit of time.
12:20But I think we should time to maybe catch up. But on the personal relationship, you know, I have never been a big votary of, you know, that making a huge difference.
12:29You know, these are all very large relationships. They go based on numbers. And so, I really don't attach too much importance to that, you know.
12:39I mean, in the past or in the future, it won't matter. It makes good TV, you know. It's nice to watch.
12:44But really, you know, in practical terms, it may not matter much.
12:49And for you to have spent almost two decades there, seen both Republicans and Democrats era, I'm sure your judgment will prevail as far as this trade ties are concerned, this personal ties are also concerned.
13:04One thing simply put, Marutha, what would be the impact for the Indian exporters? And what will be the risks if this is not resolved?
13:15Is this a scope left for resolution? As you mentioned, some back channel talks, is that possible?
13:22There is definitely scope left and there is always hope.
13:26And, but, but this is the most serious issue, right? You know, I think we need to try and cut the noise and try and focus on what is more important, you know, from a purely from India's own self-interest point of view, you know, not even, we don't have to think about anything else, you know.
13:44So, to take, for example, India has really high quality engineers, a lot of excellent entrepreneurs, you know, manufacturing amazing products, you know.
13:54And unfortunately, or fortunately, our domestic market, you know, due to our per capita income is very cost sensitive, right?
14:02So, you produce high quality stuff, your ability to produce really high quality stuff, you cannot sell all of those products in the domestic market, you know.
14:11Right.
14:11You are competing with China for the low-end market too.
14:15So, effectively, what you need as a country at this stage for your own entrepreneurs, for your own business people to find bigger markets where you can sell your products.
14:24And India has been doing an amazing job, Indian business people have been doing an amazing job over the last few years.
14:30So, we have to be really pragmatic, stay focused on that and make sure we do not lose market access and lose competitive advantage, you know.
14:39Right.
14:39So, this, I think, is the, by hook or crook, we have to figure out a way to make sure we get a deal done and continue and do not allow disruption to come in the momentum that Indian customers have.
14:51Right.
14:52So, India is already, US is India's number one merchandise importer already.
14:59People say China is our largest trading partner, but that doesn't mean anything because they don't actually buy anything from us.
15:06All they do is sell to us, you know.
15:08So, US is really 20% of our imports.
15:11So, I think we should find a way to fix this issue.
15:14US is very, very important and we cannot take this for granted.
15:18Anyway, it's a bad timing with Russia and he's getting involved, but I think we can figure it out.
15:23Right, right.
15:24Martha, one final question.
15:26I know it's late there on a Friday night.
15:29Back home in San Francisco, in United States, Donald Trump, he romps back to power with a thunderous victory.
15:41His tariffs are now in place.
15:43He has done them again and again.
15:45This time he has again redrawn the map completely and fixed the revised tariffs.
15:51Do you think the triumph that Donald Trump was hoping, will it come by and if it will, will there be costs to be paid for it from American side?
16:05See, this is a very difficult question to answer, frankly, because there are so many moving parts, there are so much trade relationships, you know.
16:16It's tough to predict, especially what happens in the medium to long term is even more hard to predict.
16:21But the surprising thing is, you know, after all this, you know, the GDP for second quarter 2025, the U.S. came at 3% growth, you know, which is astonishing for a large economy.
16:35Right, right.
16:36There are, of course, you know, yeah, there is some kind of data issue in that, you know, demand getting pulled forward to the previous quarter and imports being slow and stuff like that.
16:47But I think overall, I don't think there is seems like a major impact on U.S. economy so far.
16:54And that seems to be the reading of the other countries too, like EU, Japan.
16:59They've all jumped in happily or reluctantly, but they made a deal, you know.
17:03I think that's the signal for us.
17:07I think I'm really, really hopeful that we get a deal done quickly and the U.S. economy, Indian economy, all the economies do really well, you know.
17:16Absolutely, absolutely.
17:18What a positive note to conclude the conversation here.
17:22Maruta, thank you so much for speaking to OneIndia.
17:24We wish you a very good weekend.
17:26And Maruta Bharati, a name to reckon with in the international shipping and logistics sector.
17:33Thank you, Maruta, for speaking to OneIndia.
17:35Take care, Pankaj.
17:36Have a good weekend.
17:46Download the OneIndia app now.