India’s 30% tariff on USA for Pulses, impact on North Dakota and Montana farmers.

Since 1st November 2025, India has silently imposed 30% tariff on Pulses imports from USA.

India is the largest global consumer of pulses (≈27% of world consumption).
Record imports in 2024–25 peaked at over 7.2 million tonnes worth ~$5.48 billion.
Yellow peas dominate import share, followed by chana, tur, masoor and urad.

How its impacting USA

• Approx. 15% of U.S. yellow pea exports goes to India.

• The major hit for this is to North Dakota & Montana farmers.

How India is moving to other import options

• The tariff makes U.S. pulses less competitive to India compared to producers from Canada, Russia, Australia and East Africa, where duties are lower or imports are duty-free.

.They are a nutritional staple, providing essential plant-based protein to millions of Indians, especially in vegetarian diets.

Domestic production alone cannot meet India’s growing pulse demand. This gap has historically led India to rely on imports of various pulse varieties.

The major components included:

• Yellow/white peas (~21.67 lakh tonnes) mainly from Canada and Russia
• Chana (chickpeas) from Australia (16.14 lakh tonnes)
• Masoor (lentils) including imports from the U.S., Canada and Australia (12.19 lakh tonne)

Import Composition (2024–25):

• Yellow peas accounted for the largest share (≈30%)

• Followed by chana (22%)

• Tur (pigeon pea) ~16.7%

•  masoor (lentils) ~16.6%.

  

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