US expert advises Trump to scrap 50% tariffs and apologise to India, praises Modi’s ‘pretty smart’ balancing act

NEW DELHI : A prominent American expert has urged President Donald Trump to roll back the steep tariffs on India, cut them to zero and “apologise” to New Delhi, while describing Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi as “pretty smart” in managing ties with Washington, Moscow and Beijing.

Edward Price, an adjunct professor at New York University, told news agency ANI that India holds a “deciding” vote in shaping the 21st century and warned that Donald Trump’s tariff policy is jeopardising Washington’s most important partnership.

“I consider the partnership between India and the US as the most crucial 21st-century partnership. This partnership will decide what happens between China and Russia. India has the deciding vote in the 21st century… I can’t for the life of me understand why the President of the US, in confrontation with China and in a war with Russia, then imposes 50% tariffs on India,” he said.

“We need to remove the 50% tariff on India and get it down to something far more reasonable, I suggest zero per cent and apologise,” he added. Edward Price also praised PM Modi’s handling of global power rivalries, noting that he has signalled India’s options without fully aligning with Beijing or Moscow.

“PM Modi is being pretty smart. He is reminding the Americans, reminding people like me, that he has options, but he’s not fully embraced China and Russia and is not attending the military parade, for example,” Edward Price said.

The professor stressed that India would not fall into Beijing’s orbit, pointing to its independent foreign policy, as he asserted, “India is an independently minded sovereign with its own civilisation. It makes its own choices. There’s no way India is going to permanently put its feet on one side or the other.”

Donald Trump’s tariffs on India, which include a 25 per cent reciprocal duty on Indian goods combined with an additional 25 per cent levy linked to New Delhi’s purchase of Russian crude, rank among the steepest in the world. The US President has accused India of “fueling Russia’s deadly attacks on Ukraine” while at the same time declining to impose stronger sanctions on Moscow itself.

On Truth Social this week, Donald Trump described the trade relationship as a “one-sided disaster”, insisting that India had offered to slash tariffs on US goods too late. “They sell us massive amounts of goods, their biggest ‘client,’ but we sell them very little,” he wrote.

But Edward Price warned that Donald Trump’s tariff offensive could damage long-term strategic cooperation between the world’s two largest democracies, saying, “India has the deciding vote in the 21st century. Alienating it now makes no sense.”