FRANCE 24: US President Donald Trump has announced plans to sharply increase tariffs on Indian imports, citing India’s continued purchases of Russian oil as a key concern. In a televised interview, Trump criticised India’s trade practices and warned that supporting Russia’s energy sector fuels its war in Ukraine.
Trump on Tuesday said he would increase the tariff charged on imports from India from the current rate of 25 percent “very substantially” over the next 24 hours, given India’s continued purchases of Russian oil.
“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 percent but I think I’m going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they’re buying Russian oil,” he told CNBC in a televised interview, adding that the main sticking point with India was that its tariffs were too high.
“They’re fuelling the war machine, and if they’re going to do that, then I’m not going to be happy,” Trump added.
He did not provide a finalised tariff rate for India.
Meanwhile, declining energy prices could put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt the war in Ukraine.
“If energy goes down enough, Putin is going to stop killing people,” Trump told CNBC. “If you get energy down, another $10 a barrel, he’s going to have no choice because his economy stinks.”
