New York/Moscow: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said India has not been a good trading partner and announced that he will raise the tariffs on New Delhi “very substantially” over the next 24 hours because it is buying 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,” Trump said 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 asked about the trade deal with India that seemed imminent, Trump said the “sticking point” with India is that its tariffs are too high.
“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, Trump said he will “substantially” raise US tariffs on India, accusing the country of buying massive amounts of Russian oil and selling it for big profits.
Hours later, India 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 double standards in targeting it on the issue and said both the US and the EU are continuing their trade relations with Russia.
“Unlike our case, such trade is not even a vital national compulsion,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.
The Europe-Russia trade includes not just energy, but also fertilisers, mining products, chemicals, iron and steel, and machinery and transport equipment, the MEA said.
“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 said.
On Tuesday, Russia defended India’s right to select trade partners, saying sovereign countries have the right to select their partners in trade and economic cooperation based on their interests.
“We believe that sovereign countries must have and do have the right to choose their trade partners, the partners in trade and economic cooperation, on their own and independently determine those modes of trade and economic cooperation that suit the interests of a country in question,” Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists, commenting on the US’ threats regarding India.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakahrova accused the US administration of continuing a neocolonial policy against the nations of the Global South to maintain American hegemony.
“Sanctions and restrictions are a regrettable reality of today’s historical stage, which affects the entire world,” Zakaharova said in a statement.
“Washington cannot come to terms with the loss of hegemony in the emerging multipolar world order and continues to pursue a neocolonial policy in an attempt to maintain its position, using politicised levers of economic pressure against those who refuse to follow in its wake in the international arena,” she added.
On August 1, Trump signed an Executive Order titled ‘Further Modifying The Reciprocal Tariff Rates’, raising tariffs for over five dozen countries, including a steep 25 per cent for India.
The executive order, however, did not mention the “penalty” that Trump had said India will have to pay because of its purchases of Russian military equipment and energy.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, in an interview to Fox News Sunday, stated that President Trump has said very clearly that “it is not acceptable for India to continue financing” the Ukraine war by purchasing oil from Russia.
Last week, Trump mounted a sharp attack on India and Russia for their close ties and said the two countries can take their “dead economies down together”, a remark which prompted New Delhi to say that India is the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
Trump had earlier announced a 25 per cent tariff on imports of Indian goods along with an unspecified “penalty” for buying “vast majority” of Russian military equipment and crude oil.
Declaring that the US has a massive trade deficit with India, Trump had said that while “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!” Trump had said.
