New Delhi: Washington will impose an additional 25% tariff on India – on top of the ‘reciprocal’ 25% levy that US President Donald Trump had announced last week – as a penalty for its purchases of Russian oil, in a move that New Delhi has denounced as “extremely unfortunate”.The additional 25% tariff, which is to apply in three weeks and would take the total tariff on India to 50%, is aimed at deterring countries from supporting Russia’s economy through oil purchases as well as at punishing Moscow for “its ongoing aggressions” against Ukraine, the White House said on Wednesday (August 6).India’s Ministry of External Affairs responded by saying that it is “extremely unfortunate” that the Trump administration chose to impose the additional tariff “for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest”.“We reiterate that these actions are unfair, unjustified and unreasonable,” it said, adding that “India will take all actions necessary to protect its national interests” and repeating its long-held stance that its purchases of Russian oil are by what is on offer in the market.The announcement of the additional tariff comes as national security adviser Ajit Doval is in Moscow to discuss India-Russia defence and security cooperation, as well as India’s purchases of Russian oil, per Russia’s official news agency. Alongside, US diplomat Steve Witkoff was also in the Russian capital, where he met with President Vladimir Putin two days ahead of Washington’s deadline for Moscow to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine lest it and its oil customers face punitive levies.Notably, the 25%+25% tariffs on India are over and above Washington’s 10% tariff that is applicable to all countries.Meanwhile, the main ‘reciprocal’ 25% tariff that Trump had announced on July 30 is set to kick in on Thursday.According to the White House fact-sheet on the executive order promulgating the additional 25% tariff, Trump imposed it on India “in response to its continued purchase of Russian Federation oil” and as a way of “establishing a process for the potential imposition of similar tariffs on other countries that directly or indirectly import oil from the Russian Federation”.“The President found that India is currently importing Russian Federation oil. Accordingly, to address the national emergency stemming from the Government of the Russian Federation’s actions taken against Ukraine, he is imposing an additional 25% tariff on imports from India, effective August 27, due to India’s direct or indirect importation of Russian Federation oil,” it stated.It added that the tariff is “in addition to any other duties, fees, taxes, exactions, and charges applicable to such imports, unless subject to existing or future actions under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962” and in addition to “any tariff applicable under Executive Order 14257 of April 2, 2025”.Once it applies, the tariff on India will match that of Brazil, which so far has attracted the highest tariff from the US at 50%.At one point Washington declared a 145% tariff on Chinese goods – with Beijing imposing a 125% tariff on America – but the two sides have agreed a truce that is currently set to expire on August 12, under which the US charges China with a 30% tariff albeit with some exceptions.Earlier on Tuesday, the US president had said in an interview to CNBC that India had not been a good trading partner and that he was considering raising the tariff on New Delhi “very substantially over the next 24 hours” because it is buying Russian oil even as Moscow continues its war with Ukraine.That in turn came a day after he threatened to “substantially” raise his tariff on India, prompting an otherwise placid New Delhi to accuse his administration as well as the EU of “targeting” India in an “unjustified and unreasonable” manner.On July 30 he had announced that India would pay a 25% tariff as well as a then-undisclosed “penalty” for buying energy and military equipment from Russia.This levy was to kick off two days later, but the executive order Trump signed deferred the date of its implementation to August 7.Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi called the additional tariff “economic blackmail” and an “attempt to bully India into an unfair trade deal”, referring to ongoing talks over a bilateral trade agreement that the two sides had agreed to negotiate earlier this year.“PM Modi better not let his weakness override the interests of the Indian people,” he added in a post on X.S.C. Ralhan, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, said a 50% tariff would mark a “severe setback for Indian exports”.With the prospective tariff standing to affect almost 55% of shipments to the US market, it “effectively imposes a cost burden, placing our exporters at a 30-35% competitive disadvantage compared to peers from countries with lesser reciprocal tariff,” Ralhan said in a statement.“For a large number of MSME-led sectors, absorbing this sudden cost escalation is simply not viable. Margins are already thin, and this additional blow could force exporters to lose long-standing clients,” he continued.Indian exports to the US that stand to be highly impacted by a 50% tariff include steel, aluminium, copper, machinery, organic chemicals, knitted and woven apparel, shrimp, furniture and carpets, said Ajay Srivastava of the Global Trade Research Institute.Some of these products will face overall tariffs higher than 50% as they will also face the US’s most-favoured nation tariffs in addition to the recently announced levies, he pointed out in a note.Meanwhile, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has told Reuters that he plans to call his fellow BRICS leaders starting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping to ‘discuss the possibility of a joint response’ to Trump’s tariffs.Trump, who has labelled BRICS an ‘anti-American’ group bent on undermining the dollar, previously threatened to levy punitive tariffs on the bloc’s countries as well as on nations ‘aligning themselves with its policies’.He has also expressed his displeasure at India’s participation in the grouping.