Trump vows 'very substantial' tariff hike on India within 24 hours

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced he would raise tariffs on Indian imports “very substantially” within the next 24 hours, citing New Delhi’s ongoing imports of Russian oil.

“They're fueling the war machine, and if they're going to do that, then I'm not going to be happy,” Trump told CNBC in an interview. He also criticised India’s existing tariff structure, calling it the primary point of contention.

Trump, however, did not specify what the revised tariff rate would be. "We'll be putting an initially small tariff on pharma," he added. In the interview, Trump added that if energy prices went down, it would undercut Putin’s ability to continue his invasion of Ukraine -- now in its fourth year. “If energy goes down low enough, Putin’s going to stop killing people,” Trump said. “If you get energy down another $10 a barrel, he’s going to have no choice, because his economy stinks.”

"With India, what people don't like to say about India, they're the highest tariff nation. They have the highest tariff of anybody. We do very, very little business with India because their tariffs are so high,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC Squawk Box.

"India has not been a good trading partner, because they do a lot of business with us, but we don't do business with them. So we settled on 25 per cent (tariff), but I think I'm going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they're buying Russian oil. They're fuelling the war machine. And if they're going to do that, then I'm not going to be happy,” he added.

When asked about the trade deal with India that seemed imminent, Trump said the “sticking point” with India is that its tariffs are too high. “Now I will say this, India went from the highest tariffs ever, they will give us zero tariffs….But that's not good enough, because of what they're doing with oil.” A day earlier, Trump said he will “substantially” raise US tariffs on India, accusing the country of buying massive amounts of Russian oil and selling it for big profits.

'Actively involved in discussions with US'

Trump's tariff threat comes hours after India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry said that it is actively involved in the discussions with the US, with the aim of expanding trade and investment.

"Government of India is actively involved in the discussions on the India-USA Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with the Government of the United States with the aim to expand trade and investment and deepening the India-US trade relationship to promote growth that ensures fairness, national security and job creation," said Jitin Prasada, minister of state for Commerce & Industry, in response to a question by Lok Sabha member Kodikunnil Suresh.

India defends energy relationship with Russia

Earlier on Monday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issued a sharp rebuttal to Trump’s threat of imposing higher tariffs on Indian goods, calling the criticism over Russian oil imports “unjustified and unreasonable”. The ministry stressed that India’s energy ties with Russia are driven by national "necessity" and are far smaller in scale compared to trade between Russia and the West.

“India has been targeted by the United States and the European Union for importing oil from Russia after the commencement of the Ukraine conflict. In fact, India began importing from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the conflict,” the MEA said in a statement on Monday.

The ministry also recalled that, at the time, Washington had actually welcomed India’s move to purchase Russian oil. “The United States at that time actively encouraged such imports by India for strengthening global energy market stability,” it noted.

Data cited by the MEA further underlined the imbalance in criticism. The European Union recorded €67.5 billion in goods trade with Russia in 2024, and an additional €17.2 billion in services trade in 2023 -- far higher than India’s total trade with Moscow.