Trump says India ‘not a good trading partner’, vows tariff hike in 24 hours

United States President Donald Trump told CNBC on Tuesday that New Delhi has “not been a good trading partner” and that he was going to raise the tariffs imposed on goods imported from India “very substantially” within the next 24 hours.

“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,” Trump said in an interview to the American news channel. “So we settled on 25%. But I think I am going to raise that rate very substantially in the next 24 hours.”

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

“If they are going to do that, I am not going to be happy,” he added.

Trump has been threatening to impose a penalty on India for buying a large portion of its military equipment and fuel from Russia amid the war on Ukraine.

The US president’s comments on Tuesday came a day after he announced that Washington would substantially increase the tariffs imposed on India because of New Delhi’s purchase and sale of Russian oil in the “open market for big profit”.

In response to the US president’s comments on Monday, New Delhi said that the targeting of India by Washington and the European Union...

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