Donald Trump imposes new tariffs against India

President Donald Trump’s US government is taking on India with additional tariffs because of its oil transactions with Russia. The new taxes of 25 percent should come into force 21 days after today’s signing of the corresponding decree, according to the republican’s arrangement.

Previously, Trump had already announced tariffs in the same amount to Indian imports, but left open how high the additional “punishment” would be due to the business with the Kremlin. With the now announced 25 percent, the sentence would double to a total of 50 percent.

With the step, the US President wants to further weaken the economic basis of the Kremlin by increasing large buyers in the energy sector such as China and India. Russia has been waging a war against its neighboring country Ukraine for more than three years and keeps his war machine running, especially with the sale of its raw materials, of which fossil fuels such as oil and gas.

Trump had repeatedly threatened with higher tariffs in connection with the Russian attack war against Ukraine, but has so far not been given any specific figures.

Last Tuesday (July 29), the US President set a period of ten days and asked for a ceasefire between Moscow and Kiev during this period. If this does not come about, he announced sanctions against Russia’s trading partner. Trump’s announcement against India falls on the day when his US specialist Steve Witkoff had talks in Moscow.

Russian commentators said Witkoff had just left when Trump’s announcement. Apparently the negotiations would not have led to any results. However, it was considered extremely unlikely that Putin was involved in the war ended by Trump. He always emphasized that he wanted to reach all war goals.

In June, after China, India was the second largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels, and was bought worth 4.5 billion euros. According to energy experts from the independent research organization CREA, crude oil accounted for 80 percent or 3.6 billion euros. The country receives the oil and other energy sources at significant discounts, below the world market value.