"Remember, while India is our friend, we have, over the years, done relatively little business with them because their Tariffs are far too high, among the highest in the World, and they have the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary Trade Barriers of any Country. Also, they have always bought a vast majority of their military equipment from Russia, and are Russia’s largest buyer of ENERGY, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE — ALL THINGS NOT GOOD! INDIA WILL THEREFORE BE PAYING A TARIFF OF 25%, PLUS A PENALTY FOR THE ABOVE, STARTING ON AUGUST FIRST. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER. MAGA!"
Comments emerged from influencers on social media.
"Do the India tariffs include Indian call centers which are never helpful and also take American jobs?" asked Jack Posobiec.
"Might be worth finding a way to tariff the outsourced 'professional services' in India as well," Joshua Steinman suggested.
The suggestion of putting a tariff on "professional services" came from user Still Boneless, too, saying "Outsourcing to India has increased 3,000% in 25 years for US companies. We must heavily tariff the import of 'professional services'."
Indians also receive the most H-1B visas of any nation, with about 70-75% of those work visas going to citizens of that nation. Many US companies have outsourced their customer support to India, including IBM, JP Morgan, Whirlpool, General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, AT&T, American Express, and Dell.
Additionally, Indians in the US send a great deal of remittances home, with about $32 billion being sent home in 2023, which is about 28% of the total remittances sent back to India from Indians working abroad. India received some $125 billion in remittances in 2023.
India said in January that it would take back 18,000 Indian citizens who are currently living in the US illegally. This promise was an attempt to avoid a conflict over trade.
