WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump threatened Monday to “substantially” hike US tariffs on goods from India over its purchases of Russian oil — a key source of revenue for Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
Trump’s heightened pressure on India comes after he signaled fresh sanctions on Moscow if it did not make progress by Friday towards a peace deal with Kyiv, more than three years since Russia’s invasion.
Moscow is anticipating talks with the US leader’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is expected to meet President Vladimir Putin this week.
On Monday, Trump said in a post to his Truth Social platform that India was “buying massive amounts of Russian Oil” and selling it for “big profits.”
“They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine,” Trump added.
“Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA.”
But he did not provide details on what tariff level he had in mind.
For now, an existing 10 percent US tariff on Indian products is expected to rise to 25 percent come Thursday.
