Donald Trump says he will raise tariff of India 'substantially' in next 24 hours

Time of India

2 hours ago

Donald Trump
TOI correspondent from Washington:
Ties between US and India are headed downhill on the slippery slope of Russian oil. Accusing New Delhi of fueling the Moscow war machine, US President Donald Trump said he would, in the next 24 hours, raise tariffs on Indian exports "substantially" on top of the 25 per cent he has already announced.
In a phone-in interview on CNBC, Trump claimed that New Delhi had agreed to zero tariffs for US exports into India, but asserted that's not good enough because of the Russia issue.
"They're fueling the (Russian) war machine. And if they're going to do that, then I'm not going to be happy," a peeved Trump said, hours after New Delhi defiantly said it will continue to buy Russian oil, arguing that Washington had actively encouraged such imports by India for strengthening global energy markets stability.
The fact that former US ambassador to India Eric Garcetti has confirmed this appears to have have irked the Trump White House, which suggests that the Biden administration gave India a free pass. The rules have now changed, forcing New Delhi -- and many countries across the world -- to consider switching policy depending on which party comes to power in America.
In a separate interview on Fox News, Trump aide Stephen Mller said Trump "has been very clear that it is unacceptable for India to continue funding this war by buying oil from Russia.'
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'People are shocked when they learn that India is actually on par with China in terms of the volume of Russian oil purchases. That is a striking fact,' Miller said.
Yet, the Trump White House has adopted different rules for different countries, cutting China plenty of slack because of the leverage it wields in terms of critical exports to the US like rare earths, compared to India. Similarly, countries that resist US hectoring and push back, like Canada, have attracted immediate punitive tariffs, compared to countries that have rolled over (Japan and South Korea) or bought have time (Mexico).
In the CNBC interview, Trump continued his tirade against India for its high tariffs despite claiming New Delhi had agreed to lower it to zero.
"Now I will say this...we went from the highest tariffs ever, they will give us zero tariffs, and they're going to let us go in. But that's not good enough, because because of what they're doing with (buying Russian) oil," Trump said.
The US President also knocked down current trade with India, which stands at around $135 billion, saying "we do very, very little business with India because their tariffs are so high."
India ranks 9th on the list of US trading partners, but Trump is irked by the $45 billion trade deficit caused by India's $87 billion exports to the US, compared to its imports from the US of $42 billion.
"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," he complained even though India has pledged to reduce the deficit by buying more US arms and armaments, oil and gas, among other exports.
He wants India to open its markets for US auto industry like Japan, South Korea, and EU have done despite American car manufacturers being run out of a competitive global market.
Trump's trade and tariff rampage has affected countries far and wide, rich and poor, with former allies and adversaries being re-arranged depending on who bows and scrapes before the US President with flattery and pledged of big investments in America.
The US President threw out numbers like a $600 billion investment from EU and $500 billion from Japan among other pledges -- even though details of the purported agreements remain sketchy -- to boast that money is flowing into the US and the country is rich again.
Trump's trade-centric, America First approach at the expense geo-political considerations has sent many world leaders scrambling to Washington. Switzerland's President Karin Keller-Sutter is rushing to the White House this week to negotiate lower taxes after Trump slapped a 39 percent tariff on the country, ostensibly because she was not obsequious enough during an argumentative phone call.
The US is a big market for US for Swiss products such as luxury watches, jewellery, chocolate, and pharmaceuticals. While these items and products will become more expensive for American customers (as will items ranging from apparel to seafood that India exports to US because of the 25% plus tariffs), it will allow countries with lower tariffs to take advantage of the differential.