{"id":49859,"date":"2025-08-06T16:14:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T16:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/49859\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T16:14:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T16:14:17","slug":"i-never-said-a-percentage-trump-keeps-tariff-threat-vague-as-india-faces-heat-over-russian-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/49859\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I never said a percentage’: Trump keeps tariff threat vague as India faces heat over Russian oil"},"content":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump says he never mentioned a percentage. That was his answer when asked about the rumoured 100% tariff on countries buying Russian energy. Standing at a White House<\/a> podium on a day meant to promote the 2028 Olympics, Trump veered into trade policy, saying, “I never said a percentage, but we’ll be doing quite a bit of that. We’ll see what happens over the next fairly short period of time… We have a meeting with Russia tomorrow. We’re going to see what happens.”<\/p>\n

The immediate target is India. Trump has repeatedly hit out at New Delhi over its oil ties with Moscow, threatening to raise tariffs on Indian goods “very substantially” within 24 hours. The figure currently stands at 25%. In an interview with CNBC, he said, “They\u2019re fuelling the war machine, and if they\u2019re going to do that, then I\u2019m not going to be happy.”<\/p>\n

He framed it as a matter of fairness. \u201cIndia has not been a good trading partner,\u201d he said. \u201cThey do a lot of business with us, but we don\u2019t do business with them. They\u2019re the highest tariff nation. They have the highest tariff of anybody.\u201d
India pushes backIndia has not taken this quietly. The Ministry of External Affairs called the threats “unjustified and unreasonable” and warned it would take “all necessary measures” to protect its national interests. Indian officials argue that buying oil from Russia has helped stabilise global energy prices by easing pressure on supply elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The Kremlin echoed that view. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said sovereign countries should choose their economic partners freely. \u201cWe believe that sovereign countries must have, and do have, the right to choose their trade partners… and independently determine those modes of trade and economic cooperation that suit the interests of a country in question.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ETLive Events
Haley\u2019s criticism and China\u2019s 90-day passEnter Nikki Haley, Trump\u2019s former UN ambassador and Republican primary rival. Her criticism of Trump was direct. On X, she wrote: \u201cIndia should not be buying oil from Russia. But China, an adversary and the number one buyer of Russian and Iranian oil, got a 90-day tariff pause. Don’t give China a pass and burn a relationship with a strong ally like India.\u201dHer comments underscore a bigger political contradiction. While Trump is singling out India, China, whose purchases of Russian oil far outstrip India\u2019s has been given a temporary reprieve.Trump’s tariff war: The bigger falloutTrump\u2019s sudden shift on tariffs isn\u2019t just a political message, it\u2019s sending ripples through the markets. ICRA<\/a>, the Indian ratings agency, downgraded India\u2019s GDP growth projection for FY26 from 6.2% to 6.0%, citing US tariff risks and trade uncertainty.<\/p>\n

The sectors expected to suffer most are textiles, tyres, chemicals, auto parts, agrochemicals and cut and polished diamonds. Exporters in these sectors are already exploring ways to reroute trade through the UAE, Belgium or pivot to other markets like the UK or Asia-Pacific. But that won\u2019t happen overnight.<\/p>\n

Pharmaceuticals, petroleum products and telecom equipment are expected to be spared for now. But ICRA warned that unless a bilateral deal is struck soon, India\u2019s export trajectory could be seriously derailed.<\/p>\n

US tariffs: What\u2019s at stake for IndiaThe US remains India\u2019s biggest export market, with a trade surplus rising from $21 billion in FY2015 to $41 billion in FY2025. This isn\u2019t a minor trading partner, it\u2019s a pillar of India\u2019s economic strategy.<\/p>\n

And yet, Trump seems set on confrontation. On his social platform, Truth Social, he claimed: \u201cIndia 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. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

This, despite the fact that the US and EU both continue to import key materials from Russia, from uranium for nuclear energy to fertilisers and chemicals.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s RT reported that India\u2019s National Security Adviser, Ajit Doval, arrived in Moscow just as Trump\u2019s tariff threat escalated. India has also pointed out that it is the world\u2019s fastest-growing major economy, challenging Trump\u2019s remark that Russia and India could \u201ctake their dead economies down together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in the background, global trade tensions<\/a> are simmering elsewhere. Japan\u2019s chief negotiator flew to Washington, hoping to finalise a long-delayed tariff cut on car exports. Canada and Mexico are also working to shore up trade ties. And in the US, the trade deficit with China has fallen to its lowest in over two decades.<\/p>\n

As for Trump, the final decision may follow his meeting with Russian officials. Asked about it again on Tuesday, he replied: \u201cWe have a meeting with Russia tomorrow, we will see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

His position is shifting by the hour. But one thing is clear tariffs are back at the centre of his foreign policy playbook.<\/p>\n

(With inputs from ANI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump says he never mentioned a percentage. That was his answer when asked about the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[34140,34142,45,49,48,46,34144,26203,34137,34143,34139,34136,34141,34138,1971],"class_list":["post-49859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-100-tariff-rumors","tag-bilateral-trade-agreements","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy","tag-global-trade-tensions","tag-icra","tag-india-russia-oil-trade","tag-nikki-haley-criticism","tag-russian-energy-sanctions","tag-trump-tariff-policy","tag-us-economic-strategy","tag-us-india-trade-relations","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}