US President Donald Trump has claimed India can’t be allowed to “dump” rice in the US and undercut domestic producers, and that he would take care of the problem using tariffs.

“We’ll take care of it… Tariffs, again, solves the problem in two minutes,” he said at a White House roundtable event with US farmers, also attended by the Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The truth is that the US isn’t a very large rice producer and exports more than what it imports. In 2024-25, the US was ranked 13th with an estimated output of 7.05 million tonnes (mt), which was way below the 150 mt of India, the world’s number one producer. Even with its relatively low production, the US exported 3 mt and imported 1.6 mt of rice.

In value terms, US exports of rice sto

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