Trump’s softer stance on reciprocal tariffs lifts markets

Fears over US President Donald Trump imposing sweeping reciprocal tariffs by April 2 seem to have lessened with his latest remarks that signal a softer stance than before.

Speaking to reporters at the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said the reciprocal tariffs by US could be lower. “We may take less than what they’re charging because they’ve charged us so much,” Trump said, adding “They charge us so much that I’m embarrassed to charge them what they’ve charged us.”

“I may give a lot of countries breaks,” Trump said in what is the latest reassessment of his tariff policies.

Market watchers believe that this remark may indicate that Trump could also exempt some countries from reciprocal tariffs. Indian equity markets rose for a seventh straight session on Tuesday in hopes of diluted tit-for-tat tariffs. This even as global ratings agency S&P lowered India’s FY26 GDP growth forecast by 20 bps to 6.5 per cent because of the impact of reciprocal tariffs.

Trump has caused global convulsions over the past two months, repeatedly talking about reciprocal tariffs to level the field between and US and its trading partners.

However, his latest remarks keep up the pressure on some sectors like automobiles - adding to the mix of steel and aluminium where the US has announced additional tariffs. “We’ve already done steel and aluminium and that’s at a 25% level and we will be announcing automobiles fairly soon over the next few days probably,” Trump said.

Trump, meanwhile, played another tariff card, threatening a 25 per cent tariff on any country that buys oil or gas from Venezuela. According to an executive order signed on Monday, those tariffs will take effect “on or after” April 2. India is one of the big importers of Venezuelan crude oil.

The announcements come even as a US trade delegation under US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch reaches India for five days of talks. India and the US are already in discussions for a bilateral trade agreement to iron out the tariff issues among others. The agreement also aims to achieve the ambitious ‘Mission 500’ under which both countries aim to more than double US-India trade to $500 billion by 2030.