U.S. tariffs of 50% took effect Wednesday on many Indian products, doubling an existing duty as President Donald Trump sought to punish New Delhi for buying Russian oil.<\/p>\n
Trump has raised pressure on India over the energy transactions, a key source of revenue for Moscow\u2019s war in Ukraine, as part of a campaign to end the conflict.<\/p>\n
The latest salvo strains U.S.-India ties, giving New Delhi fresh incentive to improve relations with Beijing.<\/p>\n
While Trump has slapped fresh duties on allies and competitors alike since returning to the presidency in January, this 50% level is among the highest that U.S. trading partners face.<\/p>\n
Crucially, however, exemptions remain for sectors that could be hit with separate levies\u2014like pharmaceuticals and computer chips.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has launched investigations into these and other sectors that could culminate in further duties. Smartphones are in the list of exempted products as well.<\/p>\n
Industries that have already been singled out, such as steel, aluminum and automobiles, are similarly spared these countrywide levies.<\/p>\n
The United States was India\u2019s top export destination in 2024, with shipments worth $87.3 billion.<\/p>\n
But analysts have cautioned that a 50% duty is akin to a trade embargo and is likely to harm smaller firms.<\/p>\n
Exporters of textiles, seafood and jewelry were already reporting cancelled U.S. orders and losses to rivals such as Bangladesh and Vietnam, raising fears of heavy job cuts.<\/p>\n
\u2018Eroded trust\u2019<\/p>\n
New Delhi has criticized Washington\u2019s move as \u201cunfair, unjustified and unreasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s fifth-largest economy is looking to cushion the blow, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi promising to lower the tax burden on citizens during an annual speech to mark India\u2019s independence.<\/p>\n
Modi earlier vowed self-reliance as well, pledging to defend his country\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n
The foreign ministry previously said India had begun importing oil from Russia as traditional supplies were diverted to Europe over Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
It noted that Washington actively encouraged such imports at the time to strengthen stability in the global energy market.<\/p>\n
Russia accounted for nearly 36% of India\u2019s total crude oil imports in 2024. Buying Russian oil saved India billions of dollars on import costs, keeping domestic fuel prices relatively stable.<\/p>\n
But the Trump administration held firm on its tariff plans in the lead-up to Wednesday\u2019s deadline.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s trade adviser Peter Navarro told reporters last week that \u201cIndia doesn\u2019t appear to want to recognize its role in the bloodshed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s cozying up to Xi Jinping,\u201d Navarro added, referring to the Chinese president.<\/p>\n
Wendy Cutler, senior vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told AFP: \u201cOne of the most troubling developments in the Trump tariff saga is how India moved from a promising candidate for an early trade deal to a nation facing among the highest tariffs imposed by the U.S. against any trading partner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cutler, a former US trade official, said India has been reforming and opening despite its history of being tough on trade matters.<\/p>\n
But these trends may be called into question with Trump\u2019s sharp levies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe high tariffs have quickly eroded trust between the two countries, which could take years to rebuild,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Trump has used tariffs as a tool for addressing everything from what Washington deems as unfair trade practices to trade imbalances.<\/p>\n
U.S. trade deficits were a key justification behind his higher duties on dozens of economies taking effect in early August\u2014hitting partners from the European Union to Indonesia.<\/p>\n
But the 79-year-old Republican has also taken aim at specific countries such as Brazil over the trial of its former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of plotting a coup.<\/p>\n
U.S. tariffs on many Brazilian goods surged to 50% this month, but with broad exemptions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. tariffs of 50% took effect Wednesday on many Indian products, doubling an existing duty as President Donald…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":179314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,79,12463,1322,1567,4053,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-179313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-editors-picks","11":"tag-featured","12":"tag-india","13":"tag-tariffs-and-trade","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115099931087421881","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}