A survey released by the Washington-Based Democracy Institute found that a majority of Americans believe that Washington should not have imposed tariffs on India due to India's importing Russian oil.
The poll found that 53 percent of respondents opposed the tariffs and 43 percent supported the tariffs.
The survey comes after US President Donald Trump announced higher tariffs on Indian goods last week after India continued its purchases of Russian oil and further exacerbated his trade disputes. The new tariffs will raise the tariff on Indian goods to a 25 percent tariff on top of an existing 25 percent, which means 50 percent tariffs will become amongst the steepest tariffs applied to any of the United States trading partners.
"Given American voters' strong support for protectionist tariffs in principle, that's a surprising response," said Patrick Basham, founding director of the Democracy Institute and its lead pollster.
The respondents were evenly divided (44% to 44%) on the question of whether Trump's new tariffs were good for America.
Mr Basham noted that, "Although Americans remain steadfast in their support of Trump's tariffs as an instrument of industrial policy, they are unimpressed by his increasing use of tariffs to leverage geopolitical decisions on his allies."
Over half of respondents (53 percent) reported they were worried about how America is viewed by the Indian government and its citizens.
In the past, Trump referred to India as a "dead economy" and claimed he did not care what New Delhi did with Moscow.
"I don't care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care," Trump had said in a social media post on August 3.
After imposing the staggering 50 per cent duty, Trump ruled out any trade talks between the two countries until the tariff issue was resolved. "No, not until we get it resolved," Trump said in the Oval Office in response to a question on whether he expects more trade negotiations with India after doubling the tariffs on Indian imports to 50 per cent.
A large majority of respondents (64 percent) saw India's growing economic power in the world as a "good thing."
The survey also established that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is convincingly seen as leading a successful government and a trustworthy partner. By a margin of 59 percent to 38 percent, respondents said that Modi's leadership was beneficial to the U.S.
India was the only issue with negative feedback in H-1B visa policy. Over 60 percent of respondents wanted to end the professional visa and stop the flow of highly skilled Indians to work in American companies.
"The argument that H1-B visas prioritise foreigners, especially Indians, over American workers, and thereby take jobs away from Americans, resonates very strongly with the American people," observed Mr Basham.
The poll via telephone polled 1,500 likely voters in the United States between Aug. 3 and Aug. 5.
According to the government, nearly 55 percent of India's merchandise exports to the United States would now be subject to tariffs implemented by the Trump administration.
"The Department of Commerce is engaged with all stakeholders, including exporters and industry, for taking feedback of their assessment of the situation," Pankaj Chaudhary, junior finance minister, said in a written response.
The Ministry of External Affairs hit back at the US for targeting it over Russian oil imports, terming the move "unfair, unjustified, and unreasonable".
