US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said India has not been a good trading partner, adding that Washington will impose additional tariffs on New Delhi within the next 24 hours. However, Trump did not mention about the rate of the tariffs or when they would come into effect.
"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," Trump told CNBC in an interview. "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. They're fuelling the war machine."
President Donald Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on Indian imports if India continues buying discounted oil from Russia. He accuses India of profiting from Russian oil. However, India’s government has strongly disagreed with this and called the threat "unjustified and… pic.twitter.com/KYaFO7zyC9
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The remarks came a day after Trump posted on Truth Social that he will impose more tariffs on India on top on the existing 25 per cent tariff.
Claiming that India does not care about Kyiv, Trump said New Delhi is purchasing "massive amounts" of Russian oil before selling it for "big profits" on the open market. "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. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!" he added.
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India has called the tariffs on India "unjustified and unreasonable" while criticising the US and European countries for continuing to buy Russian goods and energy products during the Ukraine war.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Monday said India is examining the implications of the tariffs, adding that the Centre will take all necessary steps to protect its national interests and economic security.
