Modi to visit China for first time in 7 years

Trump ramps up tariff on India to 50pc

Washington: United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday imposed an additional 25 per cent tariff on India for continued purchases of Russian oil amid the Ukraine war, taking the total tariff imposition to 50pc.

In an executive order issued from the White House, Trump said: “I find that the Government of India is currently directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil.

“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 25pc.”

Trump said he determined it “necessary and appropriate” to impose an additional ad valorem duty on imports of articles of India since it was directly or indirectly importing Russian oil.

The tariff is set to take effect in three weeks and would be added on top of a separate 25pc tariff entering into force on Thursday. It maintains exemptions for items targeted by separate sector-specific duties such as steel and aluminium, and categories that could be hit such as pharmaceuticals.

The development pays off on Trump’s repeated threats to hike the tariff rate on India for its oil purchases from Russia.

Trump said a day ago he would increase the tariff charged on imports from India from 25pc “very substantially” over the next 24 hours, given India’s continued purchases of Russian oil.

“India has not been a good trading partner, because they do a lot of business with us, but we don’t do business with them. So we settled on 25pc but I think I’m going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they’re buying Russian oil,” he had told CNBC in a televised interview.

Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit China for the first time in over seven years, a government source said on Wednesday, in a further sign of a diplomatic thaw with Beijing as tensions with the United States rise.

Modi will go to China for a summit of the multilateral Shanghai Cooperation Organisation that begins on Augst 31, the government source, with direct knowledge of the matter, told media. His trip will come at a time when India’s relationship with the US faces its most serious crisis in years after President Donald Trump imposed the highest tariffs among Asian peers on goods imported from India, and has threatened an unspecified further penalty for New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil. —Agencies