Trump escalates threat level, says more tariff in 24 hours
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New Delhi: US President Donald Trump Tuesday threatened to 'very substantially' increase the 25% tariff on imports from India over continued purchases of Russian oil, maintaining his aggressive posture. This comes a day after New Delhi's strong response to comments by him in a similar vein over the past week or so.'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%, but I think I'm going to raise that rate quite substantially in the next 24 hours,' Trump said in an interview to CNBC that was aired on Tuesday evening in India. The US President reiterated his claim that India has the highest tariffs.'They're buying Russian oil and fuelling the war machine. If they are going to do that, I'm not going to be happy,' he said, adding that the main sticking point remained that India's tariffs were too high. 'With India, what people don't like to say is, they have the highest tariffs of anybody.'On Monday, India reacted strongly after Trump threatened substantial tariffs for purchasing Russian oil and 'selling it in the open market for big profits.'This is helping to fund Russia's war against Ukraine, according to Trump.India had accused the US and the European Union of unfairly 'targeting' India when they themselves were importing essential material from Russia. 'The targeting of India is unjustified and unreasonable,' the ministry of external affairs had said.'Like any major economy, India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security.' India also pointed out that the US had initially backed India's purchases from Russia 'for strengthening global energy markets stability.'Trump had last week announced a 25% duty on all Indian goods, in addition to a penalty for buying a 'vast majority' of Russian military equipment and crude oil. The US President has targeted India and Russia for their close ties and said the two can take their 'dead economies down together.'India had responded by reiterating that it will take all necessary steps to safeguard its national interest, besides pointing out that its economy — the fastest-growing major one — was a bright spot amid global uncertainty.Trump had earlier threatened an additional 10% tariff on BRICS members, which he said were aligning themselves against the US. His threats come amid the two sides negotiating a bilateral trade agreement (BTA), the first part of which is planned to be concluded by October.American trade negotiators are scheduled to visit India for the sixth round of talks on August 25-30. The US was India's largest export destination in FY25 with shipments valued at $87 billion, accounting for about a fifth of the $437 billion total.
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