100% Tariff On India, China: Trump Asks EU Countries To Pressure Russia
US President Donald Trump has asked his Western partners in the European Union (EU) to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on India and China to put pressure on Russia, the Financial Times has reported. Also, the US has signaled that follow similar tariffs if the EU countries agree.
Trump has asked EU countries to hit China and India over purchasing Russian oil, in a move aimed to turn up the heat on Moscow to end the Ukraine war.
The US President made the request when he was called into a meeting with senior US and EU officials on Tuesday, in Washington.
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The request from White House came as Trump increasingly got frustrated at the quest to broker a peace deal with Russia.
Notably, the US has already imposed a 50 percent tariff on imports from India over New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil. India had responded to the tariffs, calling them ‘unfair, unjustified and unreasonable’.
The bilateral trade between India and Russia stands at a staggering $68.7 billion in March 2025, which is almost 6 times higher than the $10.1 billion before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whereas, the EU is India’s second-largest trading partner, accounting for trade in goods worth €120 billion in 2024, or 11.5% of India’s total trade.
India is the EU’s 9th largest trading partner, accounting for 2.4% of the EU’s total trade in goods in 2024, well behind the USA (17.3%), China (14.6%) or the UK (10.1%).
Trade in goods between the EU and India has increased by almost 90% in the last decade.
The EU’s imports from India comprise mainly machinery and appliances, chemicals, base metals, mineral products, and textiles. The EU’s main exports to India consist of machinery and appliances, transport equipment, and chemicals.
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Trade in services amounted to €59.7 billion in 2023 (with a deficit for the EU of €7.9 billion).
The EU’s share of foreign direct investment (FDI) stock in India reached €140.1 billion in 2023, up from €82.3 billion in 2019, making the EU a leading foreign investor in India. The stock of India’s FDI in the EU was €10.2 billion.
