Now, Trump says tariffs on Indian imports to be raised in 24 hours
By Sunil Kumar Batra
New Delhi, Aug 5 (BVI) US President Donald Trump today said he is going to raise the tariffs on Indian imports in the next 24 hours, a day after he said the tariffs would be increased “substantially” as India is buying oil from Russia.
“They (India) have the highest tariff of anybody… we settled on 25%, but I think I am going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours because they are buying Russian oil,” Trump said in a post on social media platform Truth Social.
“We do very very little business with India because their tariffs are so high so India is not a very good trading partner. They do a lot of business with us but we don’t do business with them…,” he said in an audio message on the platform.
“India is buying Russian oil. They are fueling the war machine,” Trump said, adding “If they are going to do that, then I am not going to be happy.”
The fresh statement from Trump comes a day after he said that he will raise the tariffs on Indian imports “substantially”.
Reacting to Trump’s threat yesterday, India said targeting it was “unjustified and unreasonable” since the US as well as the Europe too continues to have trade with Russia despite the Ukraine war.
“India has been targeted by the United States and the European Union for importing oil from Russia “after the commencement of the Ukraine conflict. In fact, India began importing from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the conflict,” External Affairs Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement last night.
He said the United States, at that time, actively encouraged such imports by India for strengthening global energy markets stability.”
He underlined that India’s imports are meant to ensure predictable and affordable energy costs to the Indian consumer and are “a necessity compelled by the global market situation”.
“However, it is revealing that the very nations criticizing India are themselves indulging in trade with Russia. Unlike our case, such trade is not even a vital national compulsion, India said yesterday in a statement in response to Trump’s allegation that India was helping Russia by purchasing crude from them, the spokesman said.
“The European Union in 2024 had a bilateral trade of Euro 67.5 billion in goods with Russia. In addition, it had trade in services estimated at Euro 17.2 billion in 2023,” Jaiswal said, adding, “This is significantly more than India’s total trade with Russia that year or subsequently.”
He said European imports of LNG in 2024, in fact, reached a record 16.5mn tonnes, surpassing the last record of 15.21mn tonnes in 2022, Europe-Russia trade includes not just energy, but also fertilizers, mining products, chemicals, iron and steel and machinery and transport equipment.
“Where the United States is concerned, it continues to import from Russia uranium hexafluoride for its nuclear industry, palladium for its EV industry, fertilizers as well as chemicals,” the spokesman said.
“In this background, the targeting of India is unjustified and unreasonable. Like any major economy, India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security,” he concluded. (BVI)
