New Delhi: As US President Donald Trump imposed an additional 25 percent tariff on India, taking the total to a high of 50 percent, India termed the move as unfair, unjustified and unreasonable, and reiterated that it will take all actions necessary to protect its national interest.
In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said:
“The United States has in recent days targeted India’s oil imports from Russia.
“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.
“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 own national interest.
“We reiterate that these actions are unfair, unjustified and unreasonable.
“India will take all actions necessary to protect its national interests,” he stated.
The action comes as Trump signed an executive order slapping an extra 25 per cent tariff on India, as “penalty” for the continued import of Russian crude.
“Imposition of Tariffs. (a) I find that the Government of India is currently directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil. (b) “Accordingly, and as consistent with applicable law, articles of India imported into the customs territory of the United States shall be subject to an additional ad valorem rate of duty of 25 percent,” the order reads.
His latest order takes the total tariffs slapped on import of Indian goods into the United States to 50 per cent. It is 20 per cent more than the tariff on China and 21 per cent more than on Pakistan.
The 50 per cent tariff hit comes hours after his threat to hike tariffs on India.
"India has not been a good trading partner... we settled on 25 percent... but I think I'm going to raise that substantially over the next 24 hours because they're buying Russian oil," he told CNBC.