President Trump announced that he would “substantially” raise tariffs on India after it continued to purchase Russian oil.
“India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine. Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!”
Trump’s statement comes days after he shared that the country would be hit with a 25% tariff on goods. He shared to social media on July 30 that India has “always bought a vast majority of their military equipment from Russia, and are Russia’s largest buyer of ENERGY.”
According to the 2025 Foreign Trade Barriers report, India has “considerable flexibility to change tariff rates for both agricultural and non-agricultural products at any time, creating tremendous uncertainty for U.S. workers, farmers, ranchers, and exporters.”
“The Government of India took advantage of this tariff flexibility in the 2019/2020 budget by increasing tariffs without any notice or public consultation process on approximately 70 product categories, including those covering key U.S. exports in the agricultural, information and communication technology, medical devices, paper products, chemicals, and automotive parts sectors,” the report explains. “In its 2020/2021 budget, India further raised tariffs for 31 product categories, including solar inverters and solar lanterns.” India again raised tariff rates on some products in its 2021/2022 budget.
