The US President Donald Trump has ordered a 25% tariff on India starting next month.
The politician reported this on the social network Truth Social.
"Remember: while India is our friend, we have had very little trade with them over the years because their tariffs are too high — some of the highest in the world," Trump said in the post.
In his opinion, of all countries, India has the "toughest and most unpleasant" non-tariff trade barriers.
"India has also always bought the vast majority of its military equipment from Russia and is the largest buyer of Russian energy, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to stop killing in Ukraine. All of this is not good!" the American president added.
In this regard, from August 1, 2025, India will pay increased duties, as well as a penalty for all of the above.
India buys oil from Russia
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, India became the top buyer of Russian oil shipped by sea. This happened because Western countries refused to import it. In May, New Delhi was expected to import more than 2.1 million barrels per day. This was made possible by the involvement of new tankers in the transport of oil after US sanctions in January.
In May 2025, Bloomberg reported that tankers under US sanctions were among the ships delivering Russian oil to India. At that time, about a million barrels of Russian Sokol oil were delivered to the countryʼs refinery.
Donald Trumpʼs tariffs
On April 2, 2025, the US President reported that he would impose tariffs on goods from other countries. The new tariffs will apply to more than 180 countries and territories (not including Russia, North Korea, Cuba, and Belarus, which are already under sanctions). A 10% tariff was imposed on Ukraine.
On April 9, Trump postponed tariffs on all but China, which received the highest tariffs of 145%, while most countries are subject to a base rate of 10%. Then, on April 10, the EU mirrored the imposition of tariffs in response to the US tariffs by 90 days; before that decision, the new tariffs were to take effect on April 15.
On May 23, Trump proposed imposing a 50 percent tariff on EU goods starting June 1. He said negotiations with the bloc had stalled because the EU had proven to be a difficult party in the process. Trump had proposed not levying tariffs if the goods were manufactured or assembled in the United States. On May 26, he postponed the imposition of these tariffs until July 9.
In July, Trump began declaring new tariffs. In particular, Japan and South Korea received a 25% tariff, Laos and Myanmar — 40%, Malaysia and Kazakhstan — 25%, and South Africa — 30%.
The US president soon said that the United States and the European Union had reached a framework agreement on a trade deal. Trump announced the introduction of a general tariff of 15% on imports from the 27 countries of the bloc.
As for China, the second day of talks between American and Chinese officials in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, took place on July 29. The parties want to resolve long-standing economic disputes.
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