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<\/p>\n Email Link<\/p>\n \n President Donald Trump is ratcheting up the pressure on India, calling into question the prospects of a deal with a key US trading partner just days before his tariff deadline.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump, in a pair of social media posts<\/a> Wednesday, sharply attacked India\u2019s trade barriers and directly targeted India\u2019s sustained reliance on Russian oil purchases and military equipment. He doubled down on his threat to impose 25% tariffs<\/a> on all Indian imports and threatened an additional \u201cpenalty\u201d in response to India\u2019s energy purchases.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cRemember, while India is our friend, we have, over the years, done relatively little business with them because their Tariffs are far too high, among the highest in the World, and they have the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary Trade Barriers of any Country,\u201d Trump wrote on Truth Social. \u201cAlso, they have always bought a vast majority of their military equipment from Russia, and are Russia\u2019s largest buyer of ENERGY, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE \u2014 ALL THINGS NOT GOOD!\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Trump\u2019s tariff escalation comes on the heels of a series of deals with major US trading partners that have set a rough baseline of between 15% and 20% and included a series of pledges to expand market access for US products and foreign investment commitments.\n <\/p>\n \n For India, it marks a major setback in a monthslong effort to secure a deal that officials believed on several occasions was nearing the finish line.\n <\/p>\n \n Top trade officials have been transiting back and forth between the Washington and New Delhi for months in pursuit of a final agreement. But the recent trade agreements with Japan and the European Union have emboldened Trump in the final days before the August 1 deadline for the administration\u2019s paused \u201creciprocal\u201d tariffs to snap back into place, officials say.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump\u2019s ability to secure commitments on market access for US producers has become a particularly salient fixation as Trump has reviewed draft offers in recent days, the officials said. That has created a significant obstacle to the prospects of an agreement with India, one official told CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThey\u2019re willing to go part of the way,\u201d the official said. \u201cBut the president isn\u2019t in a \u2018part of the way\u2019 mood – he wants barriers removed completely or as close to completely as possible.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Trump\u2019s approach is tied in part to a strategy that has become increasingly apparent to foreign trade officials involved in late-stage talks: Trump has no qualms about letting those higher tariffs go into place – a message he\u2019s delivered repeatedly in public over the last several weeks.\n <\/p>\n \n But it\u2019s also created an environment in which Trump has embraced a clear sense of leverage over trading partners – even close allies – who are desperate to maintain access to the world\u2019s largest consumer market.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI think President Trump is frustrated with the progress we\u2019ve made with India but feels that a 25% tariff will address and remedy the situation in a way that\u2019s good for the American people,\u201d Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett said at the White House on Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n \n The tariffs on India, Hassett said, might cause them to \u201creconsider their practices.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cOver time, I would guess that Indian firms will be onshoring production in the US, and Indians might even open their markets more to us so that we reconsider our future trades,\u201d Hassett added.\n <\/p>\n \n At the same time, Trump has escalated in parallel his threat to impose secondary sanctions on Russian energy exports in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s refusal to de-escalate attacks on Ukraine.\n <\/p>\n \n That dynamic, which has long been weighed across successive administrations, would directly impact India and China most as nations who purchase the bulk of Russian energy products.\n <\/p>\n \n India\u2019s oil imports from Russia have ticked up this year as Russia continued to be the top supplier to the world\u2019s most populous nation. Russia for roughly 35% of India\u2019s overall supplies, followed by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates.\n <\/p>\n \n CNN has reached out to the White House for more information on what the penalty will be and if India will be receiving an official letter from the United States marking the tariff, as other nations have received.\n <\/p>\n \n On Tuesday, Trump told reporters that India would pay 25% tariffs if they don\u2019t reach a deal by August 1.\n <\/p>\n \n When imposing a 50-day deadline on Russia to reach a ceasefire earlier this month, Trump announced that countries that purchase Russian oil would face secondary sanctions. That ceasefire deadline has since moved to August 8.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump officials have been privately making clear to counterparts that Trump\u2019s threat to significantly escalate an already sweeping US sanctions regime on Russia should be taken seriously and is not a negotiating ploy, the officials said.\n <\/p>\n \n Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday he shared that message directly with his Chinese counterparts during trade talks in Stockholm.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI think anyone who buys sanctioned Russian oil should be ready for this,\u201d Bessent told reporters at a news conference at the conclusion of the talks.\n <\/p>\n
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