New Delhi- US President Donald Trump today said that from August 1, a 25% tariff will be imposed on imports from India, as well as penalties on purchases of oil and military equipment from Russia.
Trump said on Truth Social, “We have a huge trade deficit with India. ... Everything is not right! So India will pay a 25% tariff, plus penalties for all this starting August 1.”
The US President stressed that ‘India is our friend’ but the US has done relatively little business with New Delhi due to high tariffs.
Trump said, “…They (India) have very high tariffs, the highest in the world, and they have the toughest and most objectionable non-monetary trade barriers of any country.”
The US President said that at a time when everyone wants Russia to stop the massacre in Ukraine, India has “always bought a large portion of its military equipment from Russia and is Russia’s largest energy buyer, along with China.”
Earlier in the day, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the Rajya Sabha that India is negotiating a trade deal with the US that will serve New Delhi’s interests. “We are negotiating a trade deal (with the US)… We have national interest at heart. We are negotiating a deal that will serve our national interest. There should be no doubt that this government is fully committed to the national interest.”
On Tuesday, Trump had said that a tariff rate of 20 to 25 percent on imports from India could be affected because a trade deal between the two countries has not yet been finalized. Trump made these comments ahead of an August 1 deadline for imposing bilateral tariffs on various trading partners, including India.