US President Donald Trump said India should not be “dumping” rice into the US market and vowed to “take care” of the issue, saying tariffs would easily solve the problem. Trump spoke during a White House roundtable Monday with farming and agriculture representatives and several cabinet members, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. He announced USD 12 billion in federal aid for farmers.
Meryl Kennedy, who runs Kennedy Rice Mill in Louisiana, told Trump that southern US rice producers are “really struggling” because other nations are “dumping” rice into the country. When Trump asked which countries were involved, Kennedy named India and Thailand, and said China was shipping rice into Puerto Rico — a market that used to absorb large volumes of US rice but has not bought US rice in years. Kennedy said the influx has been happening for years but has intensified recently.
Kennedy said existing tariffs under the Trump administration are working but urged that the measures be strengthened. Trump responded that he understood and asked Bessent about India’s role and whether India had any exemptions on rice. Bessent said the administration was still working on India’s trade deal. Trump repeated that India shouldn’t be dumping and asked Kennedy for the names of offending countries, instructing Bessent to note them: “India, Thailand, China into Puerto Rico,” she replied. Kennedy added that American farmers can feed the US and other nations but need “fair trade, not free trade.”
Trump said the issue would be “so easy to settle” with tariffs, asserting the problem could be solved quickly and that tariffs could be imposed “in one day.” He linked the rice situation to broader concerns about manufacturing moving overseas, saying previous administrations failed to impose tariffs on imports, contributing to losses in industries such as autos and chips. Trump also said winning a Supreme Court case over his use of emergency powers to impose tariffs was crucial; lower US courts have ruled that use of those powers to levy tariffs is illegal, and the matter is headed to the Supreme Court.
Kennedy alleged that some large retail brands have been bought by foreign interests, giving them an incentive to subsidize imported rice; when Trump asked who had done that, she said “Indians.” Trump replied, “We’ll take care of it. It’s so easy.”
Context on India’s rice trade: India is the world’s largest rice producer at about 150 million tonnes and held roughly 28% of the global market, and was the top exporter with a 30.3% share of global exports in 2024–25, according to Indian Rice Exporters Federation (IREF) data. The India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) reports India exported about 2.34 lakh tonnes (234,000 tonnes) of rice to the US in fiscal 2024, under 5% of its total global basmati rice exports of 52.4 lakh tonnes (5.24 million tonnes). West Asia remains the dominant destination for Indian rice, and the Sona Masoori variety is preferred in markets such as the US and Australia.
The article noted that Trump has imposed a 50% tariff on India — described as the highest in the world — and a 25% reciprocal tariff tied to Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil. IREF National President Prem Garg called the 25% reciprocal tariff a temporary “hurdle” rather than a long-term barrier, saying India still retains a pricing advantage over competitors like Vietnam and Pakistan and can protect or expand its US market presence through strategic planning, diversification, and flexibility.
