Trump claims India will offer zero tariffs, but US will put higher tariffs in 24 hours for Russian oil trade (Lead)

Washington/New York, Aug 5 (IANS) US President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday morning that he will impose higher tariffs on India in the next 24 hours for buying Russian oil and reselling products abroad, even though he asserted New Delhi was going to offer zero tariffs.

Trump, who announced a 25 per cent tariff on India last week, told CNBC: "I think I'm going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they're buying Russian oil."

"India went from the highest tariffs ever (to)... they will give us zero tariffs, and they can go in," he said. "But that's not good enough because of what they're doing with oil, not good."

Trump did not indicate what the Russian oil penalty tariff on India would be.

He appeared to single out India, even though China, Turkey, and the European Union were also buying Russian oil, asserting that India was reselling products made from it at a high profit.

India’s External Affairs Ministry alluded to the double standards, saying Trump’s threat was "unjustified and unreasonable".

EU’s trade with Russia was estimated at $67.5 billion last year, and the US "continues to import from Russia uranium hexafluoride for its nuclear industry, palladium for its EV industry, fertilisers as well as chemicals", it said.

"In this background, the targeting of India is unjustified and unreasonable," it said.

"Like any major economy, India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security," it added.

The ministry was, however, silent on China buying Russia’s oil.

Trump said that a trade deal with China was coming "very soon".

India has been caught in the crossfire between Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who had defied the US President’s demand to end the Ukraine War.

For Trump, India appears to be a pressure point because it is the largest importer of Russian oil, accounting for 70 per cent of its exports.

Trump said of India: "They're fueling the war machine. And if they're going to do that, then I'm not going to be happy."

Asked by the CNBC interviewer if he was concerned that global prices would increase if India, the world’s third-largest importer of oil, were to go to the open market, Trump said: "I'm not worried about prices because we're drilling at levels that nobody's ever seen before."

Trump also said that he was planning special tariffs on pharmaceuticals, which could go up to 200 per cent in the next two years.

Pharmaceuticals were the largest category of Indian exports to the US, almost $8.7 billion.

Asked what the sticking point in the trade deal with India that seemed imminent was, Trump said: "The sticking point with India is that tariffs are too high."

"They have the highest tariff of anybody. We do very, very little business with India because their tariffs are so high," he said.

"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 said.

India-US trade in goods was $128.9 billion last year, according to the US Trade Representative, with US imports to India rising by 3 per cent from the previous year to $41.5 billion and India’s exports $87.3 billion, up 4.5 per cent, for a goods trade deficit with India was $45.8 billion.

Reacting to Trump’s announcement on Monday on higher tariffs on India, Russia said that his attempts to force countries to stop trade relations with it were not legitimate.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “We believe that sovereign countries should have, and have the right to choose their own trade partners, partners in trade and economic cooperation”

Earlier, China’s Foreign Ministry said on X before Trump’s threat singling out India that "China will always ensure its energy supply in ways that serve our national interests".

--IANS

al/vd