Trump plans further tariff hike on India over continued Russian oil purchases.
He calls India "not a good trading partner" citing high import barriers.
India responds to tariff threats, calling US criticism “unjustified” and protectionist.
Nikki Haley warns Trump's move could damage key US-India strategic ties.
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he will stick to his stand of raising tariff rates on India. Speaking to CNBC, Trump said that India is ‘not a good’ trading partner and added that he would raise tariffs on the country in the next 24 hours.
Few days back, the US President imposed a tariff rate of 25% on India which is supposed to be effective from August 7 onwards.
In an interview, he said, "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 further said, "With India, what people don't like to say is they have the highest tariffs of anybody. We do very little business with India.”
Talking about India's continued energy trade with Moscow amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, he said, "They are buying Russian oil and fueling the Russian war machine.” He also mentioned that India's proposal for a ‘zero tariff’ on American imports was insufficient, whilst also asserting that India was "fuelling the war" in Ukraine.
US India Relations Could be Strained, Says Nikki Haley
Amid Trump’s tariff tantrums, former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley warned that the US President’s proposal to impose high tariffs on Indian exports could strain the relationship between US and India during a crucial time. She further warned Trump not to give a pass to "adversary" China and "burn" relations with an ally like India.
Highlighting the soft-handling of trade with China in which the US has paused the tariffs for 90 days, Haley called put the duplicity of Trump’s administration.
Trump’s Threat for Importing Russian Oil
On Monday, US President Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Indian goods due to India’s purchase of Russian oil. This came few days after Trump imposed a 25% tariff on all export goods from the country, starting from August 1.
Taking to his social media account on Truth Social, Trump said, "India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits. They don't care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine."
"Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA," he further said.
In a sharp response, to the US President’s tariff threats, New Delhi called the attacks "unjustified" and pledged to protect its economic interests.
