The United States has lowered the tariff on Indian seafood to 18%, and the pressure on white shrimp exports is expected to ease significantly.

Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social that Indian Prime Minister Modi has agreed to stop purchasing Russian oil and will instead buy a large amount of oil from the United States and even Venezuela. Trump also stated that the United States has agreed to reach a trade agreement with India, with the U.S. lowering reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods and India reducing tariffs and non-tariff barriers on U.S. goods, aiming for zero barriers. Since April 2025, when the U.S. announced the implementation of global reciprocal tariffs, Indian white shrimp has become one of the most severely impacted industries. According to statistics, from April to November last year, the U.S. imported 90,591 tons of white shrimp from India, worth $756 million, with merchants paying $256 million in tariffs. Initially, India bore reciprocal tariffs of 25%, and in August, Trump imposed an additional 25% punitive tariff on India solely because India continued to import oil from Russia. India has long been the largest shrimp importer for the U.S., with total sales last year accounting for about 40% of the U.S. total shrimp imports. Indian shrimp products face heavy tax burdens in the U.S. market, and in October 2025, Ecuador replaced India as the largest shrimp supplier to the U.S. Meanwhile, India's exports to China, the EU, and Japan have increased significantly. From January to November 2025, India's cumulative white shrimp exports reached 734,593 tons, a year-on-year increase of 10%, with an export value of $5.23 billion, a year-on-year increase of 17%. In November alone, India exported 20,145 tons of shrimp products to China, a year-on-year increase of 42%, while exports to the U.S. decreased by 17% year-on-year to 22,257 tons. Just a week ago, India reached a free trade agreement with the EU, with over 99% of Indian export products gaining preferential access to the EU market, while 96.6% of EU exports to India will have their tariffs canceled or significantly reduced. Tariffs on $33 billion worth of Indian exports, including seafood, will be reduced to zero (before the free trade agreement took effect, Indian shrimp entering the EU needed to pay a 12% tariff). From January to November 2025, EU imports of shrimp from India increased by 30% year-on-year to 87,000 tons, with import value increasing by 36% to 565 million euros.