The US will be imposing an additional 25% tariff on Indian imports, the White House has said, pointing to the nation’s continued purchase of Russian oil. The move would bring the total levy on one of America’s key trade partners to 50%.
President Donald Trump had previously accused New Delhi of “financing” the Ukraine conflict through oil purchases from Russia, vowing to slap the South Asian nation with additional penalties for its defense and trade ties with Moscow, on top of the 25% tariff he imposed last week.
“I find that the Government of India is currently directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil,” Trump said in the executive order published by the White House on Wednesday.
According to the document, the tariff is to come into force 21 days from its publication, i.e. in late August.
The Indian Foreign Ministry slammed the move, calling it “unfair, unjustified, and unreasonable.” India’s trade with Rusia is based on “market factors” and aimed at ensuring the nation’s energy security, it said. New Delhi “will take all actions necessary to protect its national interests,” the statement warned.
Last week, Trump criticized India’s economic ties with Russia. Moscow and New Delhi “can take their dead economies down together, for all I care,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social, claiming that the US was doing “very little business with India.” He went on to describe the Asian nation’s tariffs on foreign goods as “too high.” India is America’s tenth biggest trade partner.
In responding to America’s threats to impose secondary sanctions on Russia’s trade partners, including India, China and Brazil, Moscow stated that it believes “sovereign states should have, and do have, the right to choose their own trade partners,” as well as to independently determine which avenues of cooperation best serve their national interests.
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