Donald Trump doubles tariff on India to 50% for buying Russian oil

In a fresh executive order issued by President Donald Trump, the US has imposed an additional 25% tariff on imports from India, opening a new front in his trade wars. The reason cited for this high tariff is India’s alleged direct and indirect import of oil from the Russian Federation. This brings the combined tariffs imposed by the United States on its ally to 50%. The US executive order claims India's energy trade undermines US foreign policy and national security interests.

Exemptions remain, however, for goods targeted under sector-specific duties such as steel and aluminum, and categories that could be hit later, like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.

"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 per cent, but I think I'm going to raise that rate quite substantially in the next 24 hours," Trump said in his defence.

India has condemned Trump's announcement, calling the move "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable."

The Foreign Ministry has earlier said India began importing oil from Russia as traditional supplies were diverted to Europe over the war -- noting that Washington had "actively encouraged" such imports to strengthen "global energy market stability."

India further reiterated that it will do whatever it can to safeguard its national interest and dubbed the US move to hike the overall tariffs to 50 per cent "extremely unfortunate".

Russia backs India

Meanwhile, Russia came to India's aid on Trump tariffs, when the latter warned of "substantial" levies on India to pressurize it to stop buying from Moscow.

"We hear many statements that are in fact threats, attempts to force countries to cut trade relations with Russia. We do not consider such statements to be legal," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said in a statement.