 "President Donald Trump talks with reporters as he meets with members of the Juventus soccer club in the Oval Office of the White House on June 18, 2025, in Washington. AP")
US President Donald Trump Tuesday (August 5) said that India is a ʻnot a goodʼ trading partner, standing firm on his promise to raise tariffs on the Asian nation.
In an interview to CNBC, Trump reportedly said that he would be imposing new levies on India in the next 24 hours. So far, Washington has already imposed a tariff rate of 25 per cent on India. This is expected to come into effect on August 7.
“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 very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they’re buying Russian oil,” he stated.
Trump had on Monday raged on against India in a post on Truth Social, alleging that “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.”
In response, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs issued a detailed statement that not only clarified that India’s oil trade with Russia was to ensure affordable supply to consumers in the country, but also highlighted the duplicity of the West– especially US and the European Union– in criticising New Delhi.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“India began importing from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the conflict. The United States at that time actively encouraged such imports by India for strengthening global energy market stability,” the statement said.
It pointed out that US and EU, too, continue to trade with Russia, and in their case, it isn’t a necessity like it is for India. The US continues to import uranium hexafluoride for its nuclear industry, palladium for its electric vehicle industry, fertilisers, and chemicals from Russia, the MEA statement said.
Trump’s barrage of threats are being seen as a tactic to strong-arm India into giving its own strategic interests a back seat in favour of those of the US.