Washington/New Delhi, Aug 5 — Former US President Donald Trump on Tuesday accused India of unfair trade practices and announced he will significantly raise tariffs on New Delhi within 24 hours, citing India’s continued purchase of Russian oil.
“India has not been a good trading partner,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box. “They do a lot of business with us, but we don’t do business with them. So we settled on 25% [tariff], 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.”
Trump, who is widely seen as the Republican frontrunner for the 2024 US presidential election, claimed India maintains the highest tariffs globally. “With India, what people don’t like to say about India—they’re the highest tariff nation. They have the highest tariff of anybody. We do very, very little business with India because their tariffs are so high,” he asserted.
When asked about the long-delayed trade agreement between the two countries, Trump blamed India’s protectionist policies. “The sticking point with India is that their tariffs are too high,” he said. “Now I will say this, India went from the highest tariffs ever—they will give us zero tariffs. But that’s not good enough, because of what they’re doing with oil.”
The remarks marked the second time in 24 hours that Trump threatened punitive measures against India, alleging that it is buying large volumes of discounted Russian crude and reselling it for profit.
India issued a strong rebuttal late Tuesday, slamming both the US and the European Union for what it called “unjustified and unreasonable” criticism over its energy trade with Russia.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said India’s purchase of Russian oil is driven by national interest and necessity, unlike Western nations whose continued trade with Moscow lacks such compulsions. “Unlike our case, such trade is not even a vital national compulsion,” the MEA said in a pointed statement, accusing the US and EU of “double standards.”
New Delhi has repeatedly defended its energy policy, insisting that its crude imports from Russia are within the bounds of international law and necessary to meet the demands of a large and growing economy.
The war of words threatens to reignite trade tensions between Washington and New Delhi, which had been on a cautious path of reset following friction during Trump’s previous term.
