OAN Staff Blake Wolf
10:16 AM – Wednesday, August 6, 2025
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday imposing an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods, citing India’s continuous purchasing of Russian oil. This raises the total tariffs on Indian imports to 50%.
President Trump previously warned India, a member of BRICS, that there would be consequences for purchasing Russian oil “to address the national emergency stemming from the Government of the Russian Federation’s actions taken against Ukraine.”
BRICS is an intergovernmental organization comprising ten countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. It’s also an acronym for the powerful grouping of the world’s leading emerging market economies.
On Tuesday, President Trump had accused India of “fueling” the Russian “war machine” through the purchase of the nation’s oil, as the GOP president is still working to dissuade nation states from contributing to the Russian economy.
“India’s importation of Russian Federation oil undermines U.S. efforts to counter Russia’s harmful activities. India’s subsequent reselling of this oil on the open market, often at significant profit, further enables the Russian Federation’s economy to fund its aggression. By imposing a 25% tariff, President Trump aims to deter countries from supporting the Russian Federation’s economy through oil imports and impose serious economic consequences on the Russian Federation for its ongoing aggression,” Trump’s announcement read.
The additional tariffs are set to take effect on August 27th, while the previously announced 25% tariffs will go into effect on Thursday.
Meanwhile, failed former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley urged President Trump to reverse course to avoid “burning” the relationship “with a strong ally like India.” Haley’s parents were born to wealthy families in India before leaving their native country, first for Canada, then to South Carolina, where Haley was born and raised, according to People Magazine.
“India should not be buying oil from Russia. But China, an adversary and the number one buyer of Russian and Iranian oil, got a 90-day tariff pause. Don’t give China a pass and burn a relationship with a strong ally like India,” Haley wrote on Tuesday in an X post.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs also released a statement arguing that the United States saddling India with additional tariffs is “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable.”
“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,” the statement read.
India also emphasized that the European Union (EU) had conducted over $78 billion in trade with Russia last year — pointing out the apparent contradiction in solely targeting India.
Ajay Srivastava, an analyst at the Global Trade Research Initiative in New Delhi, claimed that India’s exports to the United States will fall by 30% within the current fiscal year, which would be a roughly $25 billion decline in trade.
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