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Monday, September 01, 2025
ANNALS OF TRUMPI$TAN: India braces as 50 percent U.S. tariffs come into effect. (Pranshu Verma & Victoria Bisset, WaPo, August 28, 2025)
In your guts, we know he's nuts. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 7-4 that DJT's. tariffs are illegal and unconstitutional, usurping Congressional powers to set taxes, including tariffs. DJT's tilt toward Pakistan resembles that of President Richard Milhous Nixon. It has taken decades to revive our ties with India, and DJT is torching it in one fell swoop. This is so wrong. JFK's Ambassador to India, Professor John Kenneth Galbraith wrote about his work inhis amazing democratic nation in Ambassador's Journal. But DJT does not read books and is a bumptious, bigoted bully. Pray for him. From The Washington Post
India braces as 50 percent U.S. tariffs come into effect
President Donald Trump sought to punish India over its purchase of Russian oil, a move that has upended the two countries’ once-warm diplomatic and trade ties.
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Workers at a garment manufacturing unit in Noida, India, on Wednesday. (Adnan Abidi/Reuters)
NEW DELHI — The United States on Wednesday imposed a 50 percent tariff on Indian exports, upending the once-warm diplomatic and trade relationship between the two countries.
The tariffs went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time. President Donald Trump had announced on Aug. 6 that he would double the 25 percent U.S. tariffs against India as punishment for “directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil.” The initial 25 percent tariff went into effect Aug. 7.
“India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits,” Trump wrote on social media at the time. “They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine. Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA.”
India — the world’s fifth-largest economy and one of the United States’ largest trading partners — is now among the highest tariffed by Washington. The U.S. imported $87.3 billion worth of Indian goods in 2024, according to data from the U.S. Trade Representative.
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The Trump administration has become increasingly hostile toward New Delhi, also accusing India of hurting American workers. In response, India questioned Trump’s targeting of India over Russian oil purchases, saying China is Moscow’s largest buyer yet may be tariffed less than India.
In India, the tariff enactment is creating political headaches for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He hassaid he will protect India’s agriculture, seafood and dairy workers from being impacted by a trade deal with the U.S., sectors that together account for a majority of the country’s labor force. On Aug. 7, he said hewas willing to “pay a heavy price” to do so.
“You all are witnessing the politics of economic selfishness in the world, how everyone is busy protecting their own self-interest,” Modi said during a rally in Gujarat on Monday, without referring to a country by name.
But members of Modi’s political opposition have latched onto his inability to procure a deal with Trump as a failure of his foreign policy, which they say is heavier on joint appearances, hugs and scripted events than substantive diplomatic engagement.
“A robust Foreign Policy needs substance and deft, but your superficial Foreign Policy engagements — smiles, hugs and selfies have hurt our interests,” Mallikarjun Kharge, president of India’s main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, said in a Wednesday post on X. “You failed in securing a Trade Deal. Now you are failing to protect our country.”
The tariffs’ impact on India could be devastating. A 50 percent surcharge on India would impact 66 percent of its exports to the U.S., and could slash those exports to $49.6 billion next year, according to a report by the Global Trade Research Initiative. India’s apparel, textile, gems, shrimp, carpets and furniture exports would be most affected, the report said, “endangering hundreds of thousands of jobs.”
The tariff war has also had geopolitical consequences for Washington. Since Trump announced he would levy a 50 percent tariff on India earlier this month, Modi has courted a cozier relationship with members of the BRICS coalition, which includes China, Russia, Brazil and South Africa. Modi will also visit China at the end of this month, his first visit to the country in seven years.
Two of India’s leading stock market indexes, the BSE Sensex and Nifty 50, were down around 1 percent in value as of Wednesday afternoon, losses that were recorded after Tuesday’s closing. Both markets were closed Wednesday to mark a Hindu religious festival.
Diamonds are among the products that will be affected by the tariffs. The city of Surat, in India’s western state of Gujarat, is the country’s diamond capital — and nearly every diamond sold in the world is first cut and polished there. As The Washington Post reported earlier this week, tariffs have brought the town to a near-standstill.
Bisset reported from London. Supriya Kumar contributed to this report.
CORRECTIONThe BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 were down around 1 percent at Tuesday's close, and there was no trading on Wednesday for a holiday. A previous version of this article incorrectly implied the shares had fallen by 1 percent on Wednesday.
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