Trump threatens to increase tariffs on India for buying oil from Russia and selling in open market making huge profits

New Delhi, August 4: Continuing its tirade against India, the US President Donald Trump today threatened to “substantially” raise tariffs above 25% on imports from India, along with an “unspecified” penalty for buying arms and energy from Russia, announced last week.

India has not given immediate reaction to President Trump’s new announcement. Last week India had said that it was studying the impact of the USA’s decision to impose a 25% tariff and penalty.

“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,” Trump said in a post on social media platform Truth Social.

Last week on July 31, President Trump had said “Remember, 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 are not good.

“India will therefore be paying a tariff of 25%, plus a penalty for the above, starting from August first,” he had written.

In today’s post, he further said “They (India) 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.”

The industry had expressed disappointment on the decision of imposing 25% tariffs and secondary sanctions saying this would hurt Indian exporters.