After Brazil, India also targets 50 % customs duties by Donald Trump

While customs duties of 50 % on Brazilian products entered into force on Wednesday, before the rest of the world on Thursday, Donald Trump added an additional 25 % on Indian products, accusing New Delhi its Russian oil purchases.

This new surcharge is added to that of 25 % which must come into force on Thursday, at the same time as the customs duties that Mr. Trump presents as reciprocaland will only take effect in 21 days, according to a decree of the American president. It will not apply to a certain number of products, which significantly reduces its scope.

This measure aims to reduce Moscow’s ability to finance the conflict in Ukraine, presented in the decree as An unusual and extraordinary threat to national security and foreign policy in the United States.

I believe that imposing customs duties, as described here, in addition to the other measures taken to respond to the national emergency, will be more effective in managing this threat.

In a press release, the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs judged this surcharge extremely regrettablestressing that several other countries buy Russian oil in their own national interest.

After China, India is the main Russian customer for its oil, which represented in 2024 almost 36 % of Indian imports in this area, against around 2 % before the start of the war, in 2022, according to data from the Indian Ministry of Commerce.

This marks a low point in Indo-American relationsestimated in a note the director of the South Asia Initiative, Farwa Aamer. India does not want to question its relations with Russiabut will be under pressure to find a solution with Washington.

This decree occurs less than 24 hours before the entry into force of customs duties targeting most of the United States’s business partners.

Several dozen of them must indeed see the surcharge applied to their products increase significantly Thursday at 12 h 01, local time, when they entered US territory, with a range from 10 % to 41 %, Syria being the country targeted by the highest rate.

For India, the rate applied to its products entering the United States will initially be 25 %.

Support for Jair Bolsonaro

The additional 25 % planned by the new decree would bring it to the level of the rate in force since Wednesday on Brazilian products, or 50 %.

While Brazil should not initially be affected by customs duties beyond the 10 % floor now applying on a large part of the products imported into the United States, Donald Trump announced his intention to impose a surcharge of 50 %, the highest applied to a particular country.

The American president criticizes the Brazilian justice for continuing ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, accused of an attempted coup after his defeat during the presidential election of 2022.

These prosecution, qualified by Donald Trump as witch huntalso led to American sanctions against one of the judges of the Brazilian Supreme Court, Alexandre de Moraes.

Jair Bolsonaro was also under house arrest on Monday for expressed himself on social networks despite a ban linked to his current trial.

If customs duties have aroused a strong reaction from Brasilia, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva denouncing an attack on sovereignty From his country, the Brazilian capital has put into perspective the impact of the surcharge.

Donald Trump’s decree indeed provides exemptions for several hundred products, from nuts to energy through the aeronautical industry or orange juice.

In the end, only 36 % of the country’s exports to the United States are really concerned, according to the Brazilian government.

The United States is an important partner for Brazilian companies, but not essential: certainly, it is the second market in Brazil, with 12 % of exports, but this remains very behind what China represents today, where more than a quarter of Brazilian exports are leaving.

Certain important sectors, such as coffee, are however more exposed to the American market and are applied the surcharge by 50 %.

In total, new customs surcharge should bring the average effective rate to almost 20 % in the United States on Thursday, according to analysts of Pantheon Macroeconomics. Which would constitute the highest rate applied to products imported since the early 1930s, according to the Budget Lab of the University of Yale.