US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing an additional duty on goods from India over Russian oil purchases. 

The duty rate will be 25 percent, according to an executive order released by the White House. It will take effect in 21 days - that is, August 27. The new levy will be combined with the 25 percent duty that Trump set on Indian imports in late July.  

How the market reacted

- Amid Trump's decree, the iShares MSCI India ETF, an exchange-traded fund tied to the MSCI India Index, dropped nearly 1%. 

- The value of Brent crude oil contracts soared 2.2% to $69.18 in October, but then slowed to a 0.9% gain.

Context

India is the world's third-largest importer and consumer of oil. India received about 1.75 million barrels of Russian oil per day in January-June this year, up 1% from a year earlier, according to data cited by Reuters. In the first half of the year, Russia continued to be India's largest supplier, accounting for about 35% of total oil supplies, the agency said.

"They're fueling the war machine. And if they do that, I'm not going to be happy," Trump said about India's purchases in an Aug. 5 interview with CNBC. 

The White House issued the executive order on duties against India after a meeting between Trump's special envoy Steven Whitkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The Kremlin said the meeting ended only with an exchange of "signals," wrote Bloomberg. Trump earlier expressed disappointment that attempts to broker a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine had failed and gave Moscow a deadline of Aug. 8 for a cease-fire, threatening tough sanctions otherwise. 

 

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor

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