Not a good trading partner: Donald Trump doubles down on threats to raise 25% tariff on India
Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened India with significantly higher tariffs for its continued purchase of Russian oil. He claims India is profiting from the sales and fueling the war in Ukraine.
New Delhi: In a move that can escalate tension, US President Donald Trump has once again threatened India with 'additional tariffs within the next 24 hours' for purchasing oil from Russia.
While speaking with CNBC on Tuesday, Trump said, "India has not been a good trading partner, because they do a lot of business with us, but we don't do business with them. So we settled on 25 per cent, but I think I'm going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they're buying Russian oil. They're fueling the war machine."
Not the first threat from Trump
Interestingly, this is not the first time Donald Trump has threatened India with additional tariffs. Rather, he reiterated the same thing within 24 hours. Yesterday, Trump said in a TruthSocial post, "India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits. They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine. Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA."
Earlier, Trump announced a 25 per cent tariff on Indian imports and mentioned an unspecified penalty on India for buying Russian oil. He said, "They have always bought a vast majority of their military equipment from Russia and are Russia’s largest buyer of energy, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to stop the killing in Ukraine. Not all things are good! India will therefore be paying a tariff of 25%, plus a penalty for the above, starting on August 1."
India has slammed the Trump administration's attacks as "unjustified and unreasonable" and said the country "will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security." Also, the government pointed out in a statement, "India began importing from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the conflict. The United States at that time actively encouraged such imports by India for strengthening global energy market stability." Meanwhile, Russia has berated the US for 'illegally pressurising India to cut trade ties with the Kremlin'.