Big news in Washington, D.C. on May 30, former President Donald Trump said he was imposing a 25 percent tariff on imports from India to begin on August 1. He accused India of having excessive tariffs on American products and having energy and military alliances with Russia.
Although Trump referred to India as a friend, he never toned down his grievances. In one of his posts on his Truth Social platform, he wrote: India has been increasing their tariffs nearly every year and the United States is just letting it happen. These discriminatory procedures are inhibiting our great American companies and products.
Such a step may further put the long friendship under pressure, which has had to go through disputes when it opposed the Green Card visa program and the American pullback in Afghanistan. It arrives at a time of a strained situation in international relations, as both the US and India attempt to counter Russian invasion in Ukraine.
“India has some of the highest tariffs in the world and uses obnoxious non-monetary trade barriers. While India is our friend, we’ve done relatively little business with them because of these practices.”
Trump further accused India of enabling Russia’s war on Ukraine by continuing to purchase Russian oil and military equipment, stating:
“India has always been one of Russia’s biggest energy customers, and continues to buy large amounts of military equipment. All this, while the world is urging Russia to stop the killing in Ukraine — things not good!”
He also revealed that an additional penalty would be imposed on India for its ties with Russia, though he didn’t provide details on the amount or nature of the penalty.
‘We Have a Massive Trade Deficit With India’
President Donald Trump has addressed the expanded deficit that India has on trade with the United States (which now stands at around 45.7 billion) and termed new tariffs to be a response to years of unfair trade.
Trump had proposed earlier in the day, a levy of 20-25 percent tariff on Indian products and within 12 hours he affirmed it.
“India charges us more tariffs than almost any other country. They’ve been a good friend, but this needs to change,” he said.
Impact on Indian Exports
New tariffs are coming down the pipeline that will now target a huge portion of India exports to the United States at above $87 billion. The main industries that are the most affected include textiles, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, gems and jewelry which is almost all the labor-intensive industries.
Such tariffs came after months of trade negotiations between the two parties and in case the U.S. acts first with counter-measures, the situation may get far more ugly and become a proper trade war.
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