Govt vows to protect national interests after Trump imposes 25% additional tariff on India

In response to the Trump administration imposing a 25% additional tariff on India, thereby taking the total tariffs on exports to the US to a whopping 50%, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said India will protect its national interests.

"India will take all actions necessary to protect its national interests. The United States has in recent days targeted India’s oil imports from Russia," the ministry said in a statement after Trump issued an executive order increasing additional tariffs on Indian exports.

"We have already made clear our position on these issues, including the fact that our imports are based on market factors and done with the overall objective of ensuring the energy security of 1.4 billion people of India," the MEA statement said.  

"It is therefore extremely unfortunate that the US should choose to impose additional tariffs on India for actions that several other countries are also taking in their national interest," the statement added.

"We reiterate that these actions are unfair, unjustified and unreasonable," the statement said.

Earlier, in response to US President Donald Trump's threats about imposing higher tariffs on India for buying “massive amounts of Russian oil”, the ministry had issued a statement on Monday, too, saying both the European Union and the US continue to have strong trade ties with Russia.

MEA said India began importing from Russia as traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the Russia–Ukraine conflict.

“Where the United States is concerned, it continues to import from Russia uranium hexafluoride for its nuclear industry, palladium for its EV industry, fertilisers as well as chemicals,” the ministry said on Monday.

“The European Union in 2024 had a bilateral trade of Euro 67.5 billion in goods with Russia. In addition, it had trade in services estimated at Euro 17.2 billion in 2023. This is significantly more than India’s total trade with Russia that year or subsequently. European imports of LNG in 2024 reached a record 16.5mn tonnes, surpassing the last record of 15.21mn tonnes in 2022,” the previous statement added.