US President Donald Trump on Wednesday slapped an additional 25 per cent tariff on goods coming from India as penalty for New Delhi’s continued buying of Russian oil.
Trump signed an executive order imposing the additional tariff less than 14 hours before his initial tariffs were to come into effect.
After the order, the total tariff on Indian goods, barring a small exemption list, will be 50 per cent. While the initial duty becomes effective on August 7, the additional levy will come into effect after 21 days.
The Indian External Affairs Ministry responded to the additional Trump tariff through an X post. The MEA statement on X reiterated that India saw the Trump tariff imposition as “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable”, something India had said before. Stating only that “India will take all actions necessary to protect its national interests”, the MEA statement did not divulge any counter-measures.
‘I don’t know anything about it,’ says Trump on US imports of Russian fertilisers and chemicals
A day before he signed the order penalising India for buying Russian oil, President Trump had said that he did not know anything about the US imports of Russian uranium, fertilisers and chemicals.
Trump made the comments on Tuesday while responding to a question on India’s statement on American imports of these commodities. “I don’t know anything about it. I’d have to check, but we’ll get back to you on that,” Trump replied to a question, adding that he would soon decide on tariffs to be imposed on nations buying Russian energy.
Trump had threatened to “substantially” raise US tariffs on India, accusing it of buying massive amounts of Russian oil and selling it for big profits.
India had, on Monday, mounted an unusually sharp counterattack on the US and the European Union for their “unjustified and unreasonable” targeting of New Delhi for its procurement of Russian crude oil.
Firmly rejecting the criticism, India pointed out the Western double standard in targeting it on the issue and said that both the US and the EU were continuing their trade relations with Russia.
