US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would increase the tariffs charged on Indian imports “very substantially” over the next 24 hours because of India’s continued purchases of Russian oil.
“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 percent but I think I’m going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they’re buying Russian oil,” he told CNBC in a televised interview.
This comes a day after Trump said that he would “substantially” raise US tariffs on India and had accused the South-Asian country of buying oil from Russia and selling it for profits.
As a response to that India had criticised the United States and European Union for singling out Indian refiners over their exports of crude.
The foreign ministry said that while India’s imports are “a necessity compelled by the global market situation”, the nations criticising it are themselves “indulging in trade with Russia” even when “such trade is not even a vital compulsion”.
“Europe-Russia trade includes not just energy, but also fertilisers, mining products, chemicals, iron and steel and machinery and transport equipment,” read an official statement.
India had said in a statement that it would take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security.
The foreign ministry said the EU conducted 67.5 billion euros ($78.02 billion) in trade with Russia in 2024, including record imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) reaching 16.5 million metric tons.
The sudden rift between India and the US has been deepening since July 31, when Trump announced the 25% tariff on goods being shipped to the US and for the first time threatened unspecified penalties for buying Russian oil.
The trade tensions have caused concern about the potential impact on India’s economy.
National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is likely to travel to Russia this week on a scheduled visit and Foreign Minister S Jaishankar is expected to visit in the coming weeks.
