Trump hits Indian imports with 25% tariff starting Aug. 1

Shruti Srivastava, Bloomberg News on Jul 30, 2025

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President Donald Trump said he would impose a tariff rate of 25% on India starting on Aug. 1 and suggested he would add an additional penalty over the country’s energy purchases from Russia.

Trump in a post to Truth Social on Wednesday said India had tariffs that were “among the highest in the World, and they have the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary Trade Barriers of any Country.”

“Also, they have always bought a vast majority of their military equipment from Russia, and are Russia’s largest buyer of ENERGY, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE, ” he added. “INDIA WILL THEREFORE BE PAYING A TARIFF OF 25%, PLUS A PENALTY FOR THE ABOVE, STARTING ON AUGUST FIRST.”

Trump’s announcement comes ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline he set for imposing new import taxes on dozens of trading partners. The levies dash New Delhi’s hopes of preferential treatment over its regional peers. India had been among the first to engage Washington in talks, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s high-profile White House visit in February.

For much of this year, the Modi government had adopted a conciliatory approach toward Trump, revamping India’s tariff structure and offering several trade and immigration concessions to the U.S. administration. But in recent weeks, New Delhi had shifted to a tougher stance, as negotiations hit a roadblock over contentious issues like agriculture.

Trump had previously said that a “very big” agreement was imminent — one that would open the Indian market to U.S. businesses. But he has since changed his stance, saying on Tuesday that he could hit the South Asian nation with a tariff rate of 20% to 25%.

Even after these latest tariffs, Indian officials are planning to continue negotiating with the U.S. for a bilateral trade deal by fall of this year, Bloomberg News reported earlier.

The two sides had already finalized terms of reference for a bilateral pact in April, following Vice President JD Vance’s meeting with Modi in New Delhi. That initial agreement outlined the framework for trade negotiations.

The U.S. is India’s largest trading partner and top export market. New Delhi had attempted — but failed — to secure a limited trade deal with Washington during Trump’s first term.

The two-way trade between India and the U.S. stood at $127.9 billion in 2024.

Trump’s threat of additional penalties on India comes a day after he formally announced that he was giving Russia a new 10-day deadline to reach a truce with Ukraine in his bid to end the war. The U.S. president has threatened tariffs on Russia which could take the form of secondary levies that would hit countries that buy Russian exports such as oil.

Washington and other capitals allied with Kyiv view such oil purchases as a form of tacit support for Russia, helping to bolster its economy and undercut sanctions.