NEW DELHI, Aug 4: The United States President Donald Trump has threatened to “substantially raise” the Tariff paid by India to the US over its purchase of Russian oil.”
“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,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA,” he said without specifying what tariff level he had in mind.
His post comes days after his announcement that 25 percent tariff would be imposed on goods imported from India, adding that the country would also face an unspecified penalty, but gave no details.
Government sources, however, claimed the tariff would have a “negligible” impact on the Indian economy. The GDP loss was not likely to exceed 0.2 per cent, sources said. The sources said over the weekend the Indian oil firms would not be halting Russian imports as “India’s energy purchases are driven by national interests and market forces.”
Trump’s threat follows his increasingly souring relationship with Russia for failing to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine. He even threatened new economic sanctions if progress was not made. India, the world’s third-largest crude importer after China and the US, historically bought most of its oil from the Middle East, but this changed after Russia began selling its oil at discounted rates after the West shunned it as punishment for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The same year, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar defended India’s decision and said, “India’s total purchase of oil from Russia in a month is probably less than what Europe does in an afternoon,” He was addressing a press conference in Washington.
India purchases up to 2 million barrels per day of oil, accounting for 2 per cent of global supply. Other top buyers are China and Turkey. Last week, Trump declared that the US has a massive trade deficit with India, accusing it of having the “most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary Trade Barriers of any country.”
“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,” he had said.
(Manas Dasgupta)