Trump doubles tariffs on India to 50%, calls it ‘punishment’ for…

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday doubled tariffs on Indian imports, saying that it was 'punishment' for New Delhi's continued purchase of military equipment and oil from Russia.

Trump Tariffs India: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday slapped an additional 25 percent tariff on Indian imports, taking the total tariffs imposed on Indian goods to 50 percent. According to reports, Trump signed an executive order imposing the additional tariff less than 14 hours before his initial tariffs on India were set to come into effect.

The US President called the additional tariffs on India as a “punishment” for purchasing Russian oil.

“I find that the Government of India is currently directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil,” Trump said in an executive order. “Accordingly, and as consistent with applicable law, articles of India imported into the customs territory of the United States shall be subject to an additional ad valorem rate of duty of 25 percent,” the order reads.

Last week, Trump had imposed a 25 percent tariff on goods coming from India, and warned of imposing a “penalty” over New Delhi purchasing military hardware and crude oil from Russia, claiming that India was helping fund Moscow’s war effort against Ukraine.

While the initial duty comes into effect on August 7, the additional levy will come into effect after 21 days.

On Tuesday, Trump had said that India has not been a good trading partner and announced that he will raise the tariffs on New Delhi “very substantially” over the next 24 hours because it is buying Russian oil. “With India, what people don’t like to say about India, they’re the highest tariff nation. They have the highest tariff of anybody. We do very, very little business with India because their tariffs are so high,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC Squawk Box.

“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% (tariff), but I think I’m going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they’re buying Russian oil. They’re fuelling the war machine. And if they’re going to do that, then I’m not going to be happy,” he added.

Asked about the trade deal with India that seemed imminent, Trump said the “sticking point” with India is that its tariffs are too high.

“Now I will say this, India went from the highest tariffs ever, they will give us zero tariffs….But that’s not good enough, because of what they’re doing with oil.”

A day earlier, Trump said he will “substantially” raise US tariffs on India, accusing the country of buying massive amounts of Russian oil and selling it for big profits.

Hours later, India mounted an unusually sharp counterattack on the US and the European Union for their “unjustified and unreasonable” targeting of New Delhi for its procurement of Russian crude oil.

(With inputs from agencies)