Trump doubled tariffs on India to 50% this week, the best in Asia, penalizing the nation for its purchases of Russian oil
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KEVIN LAMARQUE
India and the US are protecting casual communication channels open, and New Delhi has no quick plans to retaliate in opposition to President Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs on the South Asian nation, in accordance with an official aware of the matter.
Whereas talks on a bilateral commerce deal have been postponed, the 2 nations proceed to speak on important points, together with protection and international coverage, a prime official from the Ministry of Commerce and Business mentioned, asking to not be recognized as a result of the discussions are personal.
The individual cited digital talks this week involving Trump officers and senior representatives from India’s international and protection ministries for instance of how key departments in each governments proceed to interact.
India’s Ministry of Commerce and Business didn’t reply to a request for additional info.
Trump doubled tariffs on India to 50% this week, the best in Asia, penalizing the nation for its purchases of Russian oil. The levies will harm labor-intensive industries akin to textiles and jewellery hardest and threat eroding India’s export competitiveness in opposition to rivals like China and Vietnam. Citigroup Inc. estimates the tariffs may scale back India’s annual development by 0.6–0.8 proportion factors.
Tariff worries pushed India’s rupee to a file low in opposition to the greenback on Friday. The native foreign money was buying and selling at 88.2388 a greenback at 2.25 p.m. native time, down practically 0.61%, breaching its earlier all-time low of 87.9563 in February. The rupee is Asia’s worst-performing foreign money this 12 months, pressured by persistent international outflows from native equities.
India’s authorities has decried the tariffs as unfair, and has mentioned it’ll hold shopping for Russian oil so long as its financially helpful.
The US and India had earlier this 12 months signed a framework settlement for a bilateral commerce deal, committing to finalizing the primary tranche of that pact by the autumn of this 12 months.
New Delhi will hold working with Washington towards that bilateral commerce deal though no date has been set for the subsequent spherical of talks, the official mentioned. A US commerce group that was scheduled to reach in India on Aug. 25–29 for a sixth spherical of commerce talks had deferred its go to.
A commerce deal between the 2 nations can’t be signed till each the reciprocal tariffs and the secondary duties over Russian oil purchases are scrapped, the official mentioned.
–With help from Subhadip Sircar and Anup Roy.
(Updates with rupee’s motion.)
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Printed on August 29, 2025
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