By Agencies and published by CNA
Washington – US President Donald Trump on Wednesday (Aug. 6) ordered an additional 25 percent tariff on goods from India for its purchases of Russian oil.
The tariff, set to take effect in three weeks, comes on top of a separate 25 percent duty entering into force on Thursday, according to the text of the executive order released by the White House.
The order also threatens potential penalties on other countries deemed to be “directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil”.
Exemptions remain for items targeted by separate sector-specific duties such as steel and aluminium, and categories that could be hit, like pharmaceuticals.
The White House said the move was “necessary and appropriate”.
Trump has been ramping up pressure on India after signalling fresh sanctions on Moscow if it did not make progress by Friday towards a peace deal with Kyiv, as Russia’s invasion of its neighbour drags on.
India’s national security adviser was in Moscow on Wednesday, media in New Delhi reported, coinciding with a visit by US envoy Steve Witkoff.
India’s foreign ministry earlier said US pressure to stop it from buying Russian oil was “unjustified and unreasonable” and that it would protect its interests.
Trump’s move could reshape India’s economic ambitions. Many American companies have seen India as an alternative to Chinese manufacturing, which Trump had hoped to diminish through the use of tariffs.
Even though China also buys oil from Russia, Beijing was not subject to the additional tariffs in the order signed by the Republican president.
The US and China are currently in negotiations on trade, with Washington imposing a 30 percent tariff on Chinese goods and facing a 10 percent retaliatory tax from Beijing on American products.
In another development today, a government source said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit China for the first time in over seven years in a further sign of a diplomatic thaw with Beijing as tensions with the United States rise, according to a Reuters report.
Modi will go to China for a summit of the multilateral Shanghai Cooperation Organisation that begins on Aug. 31, the government source, with direct knowledge of the matter, told Reuters.
India’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
His trip will come at a time when India’s relationship with the US faces its most serious crisis in years after President Donald Trump imposed the highest tariffs among Asian peers on goods imported from India, and today doubled it to 50 percent.
Modi’s visit to the Chinese city of Tianjin for the summit of the SCO, a Eurasian political and security grouping that includes Russia, will be his first since June 2018.
Sino-Indian ties deteriorated sharply after a military clash along their disputed Himalayan border in 2020.
Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks on the sidelines of a BRICS summit in Russia in October that led to a thaw. The giant Asian neighbours are now slowly defusing tensions that have hampered business relations and travel between the two countries.
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: US President Donald Trump meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque and published by CNA
Insert: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in October 2024. Photo: Reuters and published by Hindustan Times
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