Trump raises India tariffs to 50% for Russian oil purchases

United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued an executive order imposing an additional 25% tariff on goods imported from India for purchasing Russian oil.

This raised the US tariff rate on Indian goods to 50%.

On July 30, Washington had announced a 25% levy on goods imported from India as part of the so-called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries that have not finalised separate trade agreements with the US.

The additional levy will take effect in 21 days.

In response, New Delhi said on Wednesday that it was “extremely unfortunate” that the US had chosen to impose additional tariffs on India “for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest”.

“We reiterate that these actions are unfair, unjustified and unreasonable,” said the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson. “India will take all actions necessary to protect its national interests."

Trump’s announcement of the additional levy came a day after he said that New Delhi had “not been a good trading partner”. He had said that Washington was going to raise the tariffs imposed on Indian goods “very substantially” within the next 24 hours.

The US president had also repeated his accusation that India’s purchase of Russian oil was “fuelling the war machine”.

Trump had been threatening to impose a penalty on India for buying a large portion of its military...

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