US announces imposition of 25% tariff on all goods coming from India starting August 1

31 Jul 2025 Evaluate

US President Donald Trump has announced the imposition of a 25 per cent tariff on all goods coming from India starting August 1, plus an unspecified penalty for buying military equipment and crude oil from Russia. The surprise announcement came a day after Indian officials said that a US trade team would visit from August 25 to negotiate a trade deal. Trump termed India's trade policies as ‘most strenuous and obnoxious’. He said ‘All things not good! India will therefore be paying a tariff of 25 per cent, plus a penalty for the above, starting on August first’. The penalty because India has made large purchases of oil and military equipment from Russia.

India's import of crude oil from Russia has risen from 0.2 per cent of total purchases before the Russia-Ukraine war to 35-40 per cent. New Delhi is the largest buyer of Russian oil after China. Trump said though India is America's friend, ‘we have, over the years, done relatively little business with them because their (India) 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’.

He said India have always purchased significant amount of military equipment and energy products from Russia at a time when everyone wants Russia to stop the ‘killing’ in Ukraine. Among India's major trade competitors, the US has imposed lower tariffs on Vietnam (20 per cent) and Malaysia (25 per cent), but higher on Bangladesh (35 per cent) and Thailand (36 per cent). In 2024-25, bilateral trade between India and the US reached $186 billion. India exported $86.5 billion in goods while importing $45.3 billion.

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