Congress leader Rahul Gandhi issued a sharp rebuke on Wednesday after US President Donald Trump imposed additional tariffs against India — calling it “economic blackmail”. The newly signed executive order imposes a 25% levy against the country for purchasing Russian oil — stacking it on top of an existing 25% tariff from the end of August. The Leader of Opposition also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stand strong against what he called a bid to “bully India into an unfair trade deal”.

“Trump’s 50% tariff is economic blackmail – an attempt to bully India into an unfair trade deal. PM Modi better not let his weakness override the interests of the Indian people,” Gandhi wrote on X.

Fellow Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also stressed the need to “very seriously diversify to other countries and other markets” — adding that the 50% tariff was significantly higher than those faced by other countries. India and Brazil — both in the 50% bracket — now have the highest tariffs imposed by the Trump government. The Thiruvananthapuram lawmaker noted that this would make most Americans inclined to buy from other countries that now offered more affordable rates.

“I don’t think that’s particularly good news for us and that takes our total tariffs to 50% then that’s going to make our goods unaffordable to a lot of people in America and in particularly when you’re looking at these percentages you have to compare them with the tariffs being levied on some of our competitors. I’m afraid that if you look at people like Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, even Bangladesh and Pakistan have lower tariffs than us, then ultimately people will not be buying goods from us in America if they can buy them cheaper elsewhere. So that’s not very good for our exports to America,” he told ANI.

Tharoor however deemed it a “short term blow” — citing the recently signed India-UK Free Trade Agreement and similar discussions that remained underway with the European Union.

“This means we need to very seriously diversify to other countries and other markets that may be interested in what we have to offer. We now have an FTA with the UK. We are talking to the EU. There are many countries in which hopefully we would be able to, but in the short term, it is definitely a blow,” he added.

What did Trump say?

“I find that the Government of India is currently directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil….Accordingly, and as consistent with applicable law, articles of India imported into the customs territory of the United States shall be subject to an additional ad valorem rate of duty of 25%” Trump wrote in an executive order.

The 25% duty will apply to goods entered or withdrawn for consumption in the US starting 21 days after the date of this order — with an exception for goods that were already loaded on a vessel and in headed towards the US before the cutoff time. Some key segments such as electronics and pharma continued to be exempt from this additional rate.