Washington: US President Donald Trump on Monday said he would “substantially” raise tariffs on Indian exports to the United States, citing India’s continued purchase of Russian oil and alleged reselling of it at a profit on the global market.
In a post on social media, Trump accused India of making big gains from discounted Russian crude while disregarding the ongoing war in Ukraine. “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,” he wrote. “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.”
The White House confirmed that Trump had signed an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on Indian goods, as part of a broader set of duties on exports from various countries. The move comes amid Trump’s criticism of what he calls India’s “massive” trade surplus with the US and “obnoxious” non-tariff trade barriers.
“India is our friend, but we’ve done relatively little business with them because their tariffs are far too high, among the highest in the world,” Trump said last week. “They also have the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary trade barriers of any country.”
Trump also reiterated his criticism of India’s longstanding defence and energy ties with Russia. “They have always bought a vast majority of their military equipment from Russia and are Russia’s largest buyer of energy, along with China — all things not good, especially at a time when everyone wants Russia to stop the killing in Ukraine,” he said.
Last week, Trump had also remarked that India and Russia could “take their dead economies down together”, prompting a sharp rebuttal from New Delhi, which described India as the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
