Following a whirlwind week of tariff announcements, United States trade partners are assessing the fallout of President Donald Trump’s tariff regime.
Monday saw the European Union suspend its planned countermeasures, which were set to take effect Thursday, for a period of six months—a notable concession from the trade bloc and its 27 member nations.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen met with Trump last week in Scotland to hash out a trade deal wherein the EU will face 15 percent duties on a wide range of products imported into the U.S. market. In turn, U.S.-made goods will face zero new duties.
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Meanwhile, after levying a hefty 25-percent tariff on goods from India last week (despite claiming a chummy relationship with the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi), Trump has issued a new threat against the country: stop buying Russian oil or risk seeing even higher duties.
On Monday, Trump reiterated his displeasure about India’s continued purchase of Russian oil, accusing the country of buying—and selling—the oil on the open market at a profit. “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,” the president Truthed.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs responded to the threat, saying that the country has been “targeted” by both the EU and the U.S. for importing oil from Russia as a result of the war in Ukraine. But spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal claimed that India began importing Russian oil because “traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the conflict”—a shift that he said the U.S. encouraged.
Jaiswal also accused both the U.S. and the EU of hypocrisy in their own trade dealings with Russia, calling out Europe’s significant bilateral trade of goods with the country, amounting to 67.5 billion euros ($78 billion). The Ministry said European nations also imported a “record” 16.5 million tons of liquefied natural gas from Russia.
The U.S. continues to import inputs like uranium hexafluoride for its nuclear industry, along with palladium for electric vehicles and other fertilizers and chemical inputs, the Ministry contended.
“In this background, the targeting of India is unjustified and unreasonable. Like any major economy, India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security,” Jaiswal added.
Trump has repeatedly criticized India—and China—for their ties to Russia through the BRICS Alliance, which also includes Brazil, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia. The president has decried the trade bloc’s past suggestions that it could create a new unified currency and reduce members’ dependence on the U.S. dollar.
China has faced rocky negotiations with trade officials in recent months, largely due to its massive trade imbalance with the U.S.—a fact that has needled Trump since his first term in office, when he implemented Section 301 duties on $380 billion-worth of China-made products. But the country’s participation in BRICS and its close trade ties with Russia have also raised major concerns for the U.S. president.
Two days of negotiations between U.S. and Chinese trade officials in Stockholm last Monday and Tuesday came and went without a resolution, though Trump expressed hopefulness that a “very fair deal” could be brokered soon. During the meetings, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly pressed China’s emissaries to pull back on purchasing oil from Russia, or risk paying 100 percent tariffs on exports to the U.S. market.
China is currently the country’s biggest oil recipient, buying about 2 million barrels per day. It has also supplied Russia with $15 billion in technology that U.S. cabinet officials have said is critical to the country’s offensive against Ukraine.
“China will always ensure its energy supply in ways that serve our national interests,” China’s Foreign Ministry posted on X last Wednesday following the stalled negotiations. “Coercion and pressuring will not achieve anything. China will firmly defend its sovereignty, security and development interests.”
