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The president of the United States, Donald Trump, said he would increase the tariff charged on imports from India from the current rate of 25 percent “substantially” over the next 24 hours, given India’s continued purchases of Russian oil.
“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 percent, but I think I’m going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they’re buying Russian oil,” he told CNBC in a televised interview, adding that the main sticking point with India was that its tariffs were too high.
“They’re fuelling the war machine, and if they’re going to do that, then I’m not going to be happy,” Trump added.
He did not provide a finalised tariff rate for India yet, however, he warned of a potential tariff increase in the coming days.
Meanwhile, declining energy prices could put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt the war in Ukraine.
“If energy goes down enough, Putin is going to stop killing people,” Trump told CNBC. “If you get energy down, another $10 a barrel, he’s going to have no choice because his economy stinks.”
Earlier to this, a top adviser to United States (US) President Donald Trump accused India of helping finance Russia’s war in Ukraine through oil trade.
According to Reuters, Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff and a key Trump aide, said in an interview, “President Trump has made it clear, India buying Russian oil to support this war is unacceptable.”
This marks one of the strongest criticisms of India from the Trump administration, despite it being a close ally.
Speaking on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, Miller said, “People will be shocked to learn that India’s oil purchases from Russia nearly match China’s. That’s a stunning fact.”
