US President Donald Trump imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods over its purchase of Russian energy, the White House said Wednesday, hours after talks between the Washington and Moscow over the war in Ukraine failed to yield a breakthrough.
The new levy — which will stack on top of a 25% country-specific tariff set to be implemented overnight — will take effect within 21 days, according to an executive order signed by Trump.
“They’re fueling the war machine. And if they’re going to do that, then I’m not going to be happy,” Trump said Tuesday in an interview with CNBC, referring to India’s purchases of Russian energy.
The iShares MSCI India ETF fell to session lows after Trump’s announcement. Oil prices jumped and the Indian rupee weakened sharply against the dollar.
Trump has escalated his fight with India over trade, unilaterally imposing a tariff rate after months of negotiations failed to secure a deal. He accused New Delhi of refusing to ease access for American goods and criticized its membership in the BRICS group of developing economies.
The US president has also expressed frustration with Russian leader Vladimir Putin as efforts to broker a truce with Ukraine have made little progress. Trump has given Moscow an Aug. 8 deadline to reach a ceasefire or face potential sanctions, and has threatened trading partners with so-called secondary tariffs to discourage purchases of Russian energy.
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The Kremlin said a meeting between Putin and US envoy Steve Witkoff earlier Wednesday only yielded an exchange of “signals.”
“On our part, in particular, some signals were conveyed on the Ukrainian issue,” the Russian president’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters, without elaborating. “Corresponding signals were also received from President Trump.”
Ushakov said the negotiations that lasted almost three hours were “useful and constructive,” and also focused on prospects for developing US-Russia relations. Moscow will wait for Witkoff to report back to Trump before commenting further, Ushakov added.
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Ahead of the talks, Trump suggested he would impose increased levies on other countries, including China, that like India buy energy from Russia.
“We’ll be doing quite a bit of that,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll see what happens over the next fairly short period of time.”
Ukraine’s allies have said energy purchases by India, China and other nations have propped up Putin’s economy and undercut pressure on Moscow to end a war that is now in its fourth year.
