Tariff Shock: Trump Slaps 25% Duty on India Over Trade & Russia Ties

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India just got hit with a 25% U.S. tariff, plus additional penalties, as Donald Trump cracks down on what he calls unfair trade practices and India’s continued purchase of Russian military and energy products. In a fiery announcement, Trump criticized India's protectionist policies, high tariffs, and non-monetary trade barriers, claiming they’ve long stifled U.S. access to Indian markets. With hopes of nudging India away from Russia and toward U.S. arms and energy, this aggressive move may push India to the negotiating table—or deepen the divide. Meanwhile, the broader BRICS alliance continues to struggle with internal discord, casting doubt on any serious counter to the West.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Whoa India just got whacked. Yeah. Trump said that India
is going to be paying a tariff of twenty five percent,
meaning anything that we buy from India is going to
be that much more expensive, and probably many cases pricing
certain products out of the market, also penalty, which she

(00:39):
views as unfair trade policies. And for India's purchase of
military equipment and energy from Russia, what was it twenty
six percent? Was it the price at Liberation Day? It's
down to twenty five percent? He said. Here, Remember, while

(01:00):
India is our friend, we have over the years done
relatively little business with them because their 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. And honestly, he's not wrong there, He's
spot on, very very difficult to do any sort of

(01:23):
business in that country. Military equipment says they're buying it
from Russia and also buying energy from Russia. Again, they've
been buying it below market prices for some time from
Russia because of all of the sanctions that are on.
I'm China as well, and he said this, you know,

(01:45):
they've got to stop doing. This's at a time when
everybody wants Russia and this is in all caps to
stop the killing in Ukraine. All things not good. India
will therefore be paying a tariff for twenty five percent
plus a penalty for the above starting on August first.
Then the in a subsequent truth Social post, he said,

(02:07):
we have a massive trade deficit with India. Listen that
We're going to see what's going to happen with this,
whether or not India is going to come uh and negotiate.
They've had their issues for generations when it comes to

(02:28):
their socialist policies and it's held their country back. The
hope is is that you know, they were moving in
the right direction and looking to open things up. But again,
the bureaucracy and the socialism that's been there for some time,
it's it's their nature. They are a protectionist country. Very

(02:48):
difficult for us to get into that market. But then again,
what are they going to be buying from US. Difficult,
difficult to see. Difficult to see. Again, I think that
Trump is probably trying to push for energy sales, which
again we could take over for Russia, but they're going
to be paying more. Uh, if that's the case. And

(03:09):
of course our arms industry here in this country, Trump
wants to sell them guns again, great for defense contractors here.
Might help to some degree. We'll see, we'll see if
there's going to be a bit of a meeting of
the minds when it comes to this. Some of the
unique things in that part of the world is that
there's again there's issues between China in India. They've had

(03:35):
border skirmishes over the years. We already know about Pakistan
and India. So there's no real love loss in that
area of the world. You know. Obviously we have our issues,
you know, again, nonsensical stuff going on with Canada at
this point in time. Mexico a bit of a different

(03:56):
story with the drug car tells. But we don't have
we don't have violent skirmishes on our boards. Again, outside
of the drug cartels with Mexican was certainly not between
the Mexican military and the US military. They do they do.
And again this kind of brings this full circle to

(04:17):
the whole conversation. When it comes to bricks, you always
see people out there bricks. The bricks are coming, The
bricks are coming in. They're going to form their own currency.
The bricks are coming. No they're not. No, no, no,
no way, no how that's that's not going to happen.
These countries can barely get along as it is. China

(04:41):
does whatever it wants, but it's currency at any point
in time. So no, that's not coming anytime soon. I'm
gonna be honest, and he is going to have to
capitulate on this bad one. Watchdog on Wall Street dot
Com