New Delhi [India], August 7: Congress MP Rajeev Shukla on Thursday strongly criticised US President Donald Trump for imposing an additional 25 per cent tariff on India over its purchase of Russian oil. Calling the move "very wrong," Shukla urged the Indian government to issue a strong response, while accusing it of pursuing a "weak foreign policy."
Speaking to ANI, Shukla said,"This is very wrong. It is not right for a leader to say such things about a country. Our foreign policy is weak, but despite this, we should firmly oppose it. The entire country is united."
Meanwhile, Congress MP Pramod Tiwari said, "We oppose this economic burden that Trump has imposed on India because it will affect our exports. We just want to say that the tariff imposed by America should be withdrawn."
Earlier, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi amid chaos over the Trump administration doubling the tariff imposition on goods from India to 50 per cent, calling it a "foreign policy disaster".
He said that Trump's 50 per cent tariffs come at a time when Indian diplomacy is "disastrously dithering."
"You can't even blame this foreign policy disaster on the 70 years of Congress," Kharge posed on X, adding that the Prime Minister failed to negotiate a trade deal with the US."Now, Trump is intimidating and coercing us - but you keep quiet," he said.
"India's exports to the US amount to about Rs 7.51 lakh crore (2024). A blanket 50 per cent tariff means an economic burden of Rs 3.75 lakh crore. Our sectors, such as MSMEs, Agriculture, Dairy Engineering Goods, Electronic Goods, Gems & Jewellery, Drug Formulations & Biologicals, Petroleum Products, and Cotton made clothes, shall be hurt the most. Your government is clueless about how to deal with it," Kharge added.
US President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order on August 6 imposing an additional 25 per cent tariff on imports from India. Trump cited matters of national security and foreign policy concerns, as well as other relevant trade laws, for the increase, claiming that India's imports of Russian oil, directly or indirectly, pose an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to the United States.
Terming the United States' move to impose additional tariffs on India over its oil imports from Russia as "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) declared that New Delhi will take "all actions necessary to protect its national interests.
In further development, a senior United States Administration Official told ANI that there is simply "no comparison" between the hundreds of billions of dollars of growing Indian imports of Russian oil and the modest US imports of Russian goods.
In response to a question, the US official told ANI, "There is simply no comparison between the hundreds of billions of dollars of growing Indian imports of Russian oil, and the modest U.S. imports of Russian goods, which amount to less than 1% of the value of Indian imports".