Trump calls Indian economy ‘dead’ day after imposing tariff
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Washington: US President Donald Trump once again attacked India and Russia for their strong connections, claiming that the two countries can take their "dead economies together".
The US president's latest attack on New Delhi and Moscow came just hours after proposing 25% tariffs on India and a "penalty" for its trade with Russia.
“I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care,” he said.
“We have done very little business with India, their Tariffs are too high, among the highest in the World,” he added, PTI reported.
The previous day, Trump announced the imposition of a 25 per cent tariff on all goods coming from India starting August 1, plus an unspecified penalty for buying Russian crude oil and military equipment.
The surprise announcement came a day after Indian officials said that a US trade team would visit from August 25 to negotiate a trade deal.
The announcement is being seen as a pressure tactic to get New Delhi to agree to demands made by the US, which has, in recent days, got favourable trade deals with major partners like Japan, the UK and the European Union.
Trump termed India’s trade policies as “most strenuous and obnoxious”.
“All things not good! India will therefore be paying a tariff of 25 per cent, plus a penalty for the above, starting on August first,” Trump said in a social media post.
The penalty was announced as India has made large purchases of oil and military equipment from Russia. India is the first country to face a penalty for Russian imports.
India’s import of crude oil from Russia has risen from 0.2 per cent of total purchases before the Russia-Ukraine war to 35-40 per cent. New Delhi is the largest buyer of Russian oil after China.
Trump said though India is America’s friend, “we have, over the years, done relatively little business with them because their (India) tariffs are far too high, among the highest in the world, and they have the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary trade barriers of any country.”
He said India has always purchased a significant amount of military equipment and energy products from Russia at a time when everyone wants Russia to stop the “killing” in Ukraine.
Everybody knows Indian economy is dead: Rahul Gandhi
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said everybody except Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman knows that the Indian economy is “dead”, as he alleged that the BJP-led government has destroyed the country’s economic, defence and foreign policies.
Speaking with reporters in the Parliament House complex, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha also claimed that a trade deal with the US will happen and Trump will define it, while Prime Minister Modi will do what the American President tells him to do.
“He is right, everybody knows this except the prime minister and the finance minister. Everybody knows that the Indian economy is a dead economy. I am glad that President Trump has stated a fact,” Gandhi said.
