In recent weeks, US President Donald Trump has returned to a familiar script – striking trade deals that appear limited on paper but carry political weight at home. Agreements with India and Argentina have offered selective tariff relief in exchange for wider access for American companies to domestic markets. Technically modest, politically volatile.
In India, farmers’ unions called theIndia-US(interim) deal a “total surrender”, fearing cheaper imports would deepen existing pressures on local producers. Critics warned of India becoming a dumping ground. However, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal stressed that sensitive sectors remain protected.
“I want to clarify that India’s interests and the interests of Indian farmers have been fully protected in theUS-India trade deal. Most of the products of Indian farmers, our dairy, poultry, rice, wheat, soybean, and maize, banana, strawberry, cherry, orange, vegetables, ethanol, tobacco, meat, pulses, millets, bajra, ragi – almost 90 - 95% of the produce of farmers is outside the US trade deal,” Goyal said at the ET NOW Global Business Summit (GBS) 2026. Notably, the “framework agreement is being made”, and the fine print of the deal is still not finalised.
April 2, 2025. Rose Garden. Donald Trump declared "Liberation Day" and announced he's slapping tariffs on basically everything coming into the United States. Starting in three days. Here's what he did: A flat 10% tax on all imports beginning April 5. Then, just four days later, additional country-specific tariffs kicked in—ranging from 11% all the way up to 50%.
Within days, the stock market crashed. Trillions in wealth gone. Jerome Powell at the Federal Reserve tried to stay diplomatic but couldn't hide his concern: these tariffs were "significantly larger than expected."
You want to know when everyone realised this was real? When ships started arriving half-empty in May. Retailers had done the math and simply stopped ordering. The 145% tariff made importing impossible. Dock workers in Los Angeles and Long Beach reported cargo volumes cut in half almost overnight.
That's when both sides blinked.
On May 12, Washington and Beijing agreed to hit pause—cutting tariffs back to 10% each for 90 days. They kept extending that truce, and by November, they'd settled on something more permanent: US tariffs at 3% and Chinese tariffs at 10%, running through November 2026.
The tariffs: 25% on most goods, 10% on Canadian energy.
Justin Trudeau threatened CA$155 billion in retaliation. Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum made it clear they'd fight back. The tariffs went live on March 4.
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