Trump's $100K H-1B Fee, 50% Tariffs Strained India Ties, Say US Lawmakers

US lawmakers have raised concerns that certain policies under the Donald Trump administration — such as imposing a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas and levying 50% tariffs on Indian exports — were hurting American businesses and straining people-to-people ties between the two nations.

Speaking at a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing on South and Central Asia, US Representative Ami Bera highlighted “the strong bipartisan support” that the US-India partnership has consistently enjoyed across Congress and successive White House administrations over the decades.

“It's clear our interest, from the Congressional perspective and the administration perspective, is a closer relationship, both our economic interests, our geopolitical strategic interests, to create an atmosphere of security, peace, prosperity that both the Indian people want, that we also want,” Bera said at the hearing.

Titled ‘The US India Strategic Partnership: Securing a Free and Open Indo-Pacific’, the hearing heard from witnesses Director of Asian Studies Center, Heritage Foundation Jeff Smith, Executive Director of the Observer Research Foundation America Dhruva Jaishankar and External Senior Advisor, Special Competitive Studies Project Senior Fellow, Indo-Pacific Program, German Marshall Fund of the United States Sameer Lalwani.

Bera added that the announcement of the $100,000 fees on H1B visas “hurts American companies, disadvantages our companies.”

He also said that visuals of Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping do "cause some heartburn for folks in Congress.”

Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal noted in her remarks that the Trump administration’s tariffs were “damaging India’s economy and also hurting American businesses and consumers.”

Jayapal further stated that Trump’s immigration policies had “threatened” people-to-people ties by “shutting down legal pathways to immigrate, reminiscent of a legacy of discriminatory quotas that once made it extremely difficult for Indians to immigrate in the first place.”

Recalling that she is the only member of Congress to have been on both a student visa and an H1B visa, Jayapal said she deeply understands the “harms of those policies, and I'm committed to making sure that we continue to provide strong legal pathways for people to come to this country from India as well as around the world.”

She also voiced concern about the “anti-Indian hate that has been rising in the United States,” underscoring that Indian-Americans are extremely important to the US economy, “an integral part of our society, running major Fortune 500 companies as well as startups, and leading cutting-edge research to save lives.”

Jaishankar said that the US-India partnership has strengthened considerably since 1998. “From severe US sanctions following India's nuclear tests, we've come a long way,” he said.

He, however, noted that considerable progress in consolidating the bilateral relationship over various administrations is now at a political standstill. 

“The biggest obstacle concerns tariffs. President Trump's desire to balance trade with India and access India's market is precisely what India is offering,” Jaishankar said, adding that New Delhi has signed five trade agreements in recent years and is actively negotiating at least five more. 

“A solution to trade and tariff differences between the United States and India is therefore at hand,” he said.

He pointed out that the other challenge relates to the US' “renewed” engagement with Pakistan's military leadership. 

“Pakistan has a long and well-documented history of using non-state terrorist proxies against India. As a result of many years, India’s experience is that third-party mediation has often contributed to Pakistan's adventurism, and so the United States has pursued a policy of de-hyphenation between India and Pakistan, engaging with both but minimising involvement in their disputes,” he said.

Jaishankar stressed that there “remains considerable” progress for future collaboration, “should differences over trade and Pakistan be successfully managed between the United States and India.”

(With PTI Inputs.)