US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order imposing an additional 25% tariff on India, the White House informed on Wednesday.
The fresh addition has raised the total tariff on Indian products to 50% as Trump had earlier in July imposed a 25% tariff on India along with an unspecified penalty over New Delhi's continued purchases of Russian oil.
This is the highest tariff imposed by the US against any country, along with Brazil, which has also been slapped with a levy of 50%.
"I have received additional information from various senior officials on, among other things, the actions of the Government of the Russian Federation with respect to the situation in Ukraine. After considering this additional information, among other things, I find that the national emergency described in Executive Order 14066 continues and that the actions and policies of the Government of the Russian Federation continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States," Trump said in the order dated August 6.
"To deal with the national emergency described in Executive Order 14066, I determine that it is necessary and appropriate to impose an additional ad valorem duty on imports of articles of India, which is directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil," the order read.
"In my judgment, imposing tariffs, as described below, in addition to maintaining the other measures taken to address the national emergency described in Executive Order 14066, will more effectively deal with the national emergency described in Executive Order 14066," he further said.
Responding to Trump's repeated allegations, India on Monday accused Washington and its allies of “unjustified and unreasonable” targeting over Russian oil imports, reminding them that it was the United States itself that once encouraged those very purchases to stabilise global markets.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "It is revealing that the very nations criticizing India are themselves indulging in trade with Russia. Unlike our case, such trade is not even a vital national compulsion."
Offering hard numbers to underscore the double standards, he said, "The European Union in 2024 had a bilateral trade of Euro 67.5 billion in goods with Russia. In addition, it had trade in services estimated at Euro 17.2 billion in 2023. This is significantly more than India’s total trade with Russia that year or subsequently. European imports of LNG in 2024, in fact, reached a record 16.5mn tonnes, surpassing the last record of 15.21mn tonnes in 2022," noted the spokesperson.
"Where the United States is concerned, it continues to import from Russia uranium hexafluoride for its nuclear industry, palladium for its EV industry, fertilisers as well as chemicals," he added.
