U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday (August 5, 2025) stated India has not been a great buying and selling companion and introduced that he’ll raise the tariffs on New Delhi “very substantially” over the next 24 hours as a result of it’s shopping for Russian oil.
“With India, what people don’t like to say about India, they’re the highest tariff nation. They have the highest tariff of anybody. We do very, very little business with India because their tariffs are so high,” Mr. Trump stated in an interview with CNBC Squawk Box.
“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% (tariff), but I think I’m going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they’re buying Russian oil. They’re fuelling the war machine. And if they’re going to do that, then I’m not going to be happy,” he added.
When requested concerning the commerce cope with India that appeared imminent, Mr. Trump stated the “sticking point” with India is that its tariffs are too excessive.
“Now I will say this, India went from the highest tariffs ever, they will give us zero tariffs….But that’s not good enough, because of what they’re doing with oil.” A day earlier, Mr. Trump stated he’ll “substantially” raise U.S. tariffs on India, accusing the nation of shopping for large quantities of Russian oil and promoting it for giant earnings.
Hours later, India mounted an unusually sharp counterattack on the U.S. and the European Union for his or her “unjustified and unreasonable” focusing on of New Delhi for its procurement of Russian crude oil.
Firmly rejecting the criticism, India identified the double requirements in focusing on it on the difficulty and stated each the U.S. and the EU are persevering with their commerce relations with Russia.
“Unlike our case, such trade is not even a vital national compulsion,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated in an announcement.
The Europe-Russia commerce consists of not simply power, but additionally fertilisers, mining merchandise, chemical substances, iron and metal, and equipment and transport gear, the MEA stated.
“Where the US is concerned, it continues to import from Russia uranium hexafluoride for its nuclear industry, palladium for its EV industry, fertilisers as well as chemicals,” it added.
“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,” the MEA stated.
On August 1, Mr. Trump signed an Executive Order titled ‘Further Modifying The Reciprocal Tariff Rates’, elevating tariffs for over 5 dozen international locations, together with a steep 25 per cent for India.
The govt order, nonetheless, didn’t point out the “penalty” that Mr. Trump had stated India should pay due to its purchases of Russian navy gear and power.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, in an interview to Fox News on Sunday, acknowledged that President Trump has stated very clearly that “it is not acceptable for India to continue financing” the Ukraine battle by buying oil from Russia.
Last week, Mr. Trump mounted a pointy assault on India and Russia for his or her shut ties and stated the 2 international locations can take their (*24*), a comment which prompted New Delhi to say that India is the world’s fastest-growing main financial system.
Mr. Trump had earlier introduced a 25% tariff on imports of Indian items together with an unspecified “penalty” for purchasing “vast majority” of Russian navy gear and crude oil.
Declaring that the U.S. has an enormous commerce deficit with India, Mr. Trump had stated that whereas “India is our friend, we have, over the years, done relatively little business with them because their tariffs are far too high, among the highest in the world, and they have the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary Trade Barriers of any country.
“Also, they have always bought a vast majority of their military equipment from Russia, and are Russia’s largest buyer of energy, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to stop the killing in Ukraine — All things not good!” Mr. Trump had stated.
