US tariffs | US punitive tariffs on India doubled

Berlin. The United States has imposed new tariffs on imports from India. This doubles the tariff rate imposed on India under the Trump administration, to 50 percent. With these punitive tariffs, US President Donald Trump primarily aims to weaken Russia, which continues to sell oil and gas worldwide despite Western sanctions. In June, India was the second-largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels after China.

The government in New Delhi had only resumed imports of Russian oil seven days ago, following the first threats from Washington, after a three-week pause. Prior to this, there had been several government-level meetings and phone calls between India and Russia. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov had identified potential for expanding liquefied natural gas exports.

Last week, India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar visited Moscow and was received by President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. While there are media reports that India intends to curb Russian oil supplies, according to calculations by the news agency Bloomberg, the amount remained the same. New Delhi has repeatedly emphasized that it will continue to source its raw materials from wherever they are cheapest.

Accordingly, the government there spoke of "unjust and unjustified" measures and accused the West, which criticizes India for its trade with Russia but does business there itself, of hypocrisy.

India, the world's fifth-largest economy, is one of the United States' most important partners in the Indo-Pacific region, exporting virtually everything from clothing to diamonds to seafood to the US, from which it obtains, among other things, oil and gas. India is also becoming increasingly important for Ukraine, recently becoming the most important supplier of oil products such as diesel, and also producing from Russian oil.