US President Wins Vote to Push 100% Tariff on India

September

2026

US President Donald Trump signed into law the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, 2026, on 18 Sep, giving himself the authority to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries, including India and China, that continue buying Russian oil and gas. The White House said in a statement, ‘The law authorizes and expands statutory sanctions, tariffs, and prohibitions on Russia and extends existing sanctions on Iran.' The US Trade Representative, the federal agency responsible for developing and recommending US trade policy to the President, said in a social media post that the signing of the bill 'demonstrates the growing bipartisan recognition that tariffs are an effective tool to safeguard our economic and national security and establish lasting peace and prosperity'. The move came after the US House of Representatives on 16 Sep passed the sweeping sanctions legislation, aimed at cutting Russia’s revenues from oil and gas exports and increasing economic pressure on Moscow over the war in Ukraine. The development is significant for India,the world’s third-largest importer of crude, which depends on imports to meet over 88% of its crude oil needs. Russia currently accounts for nearly half of these imports. According to data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, even without these proposed sanctions, India’s crude oil import bill surged 48% to USD 74.8B during the April–August period on higher global prices even as volumes remained largely unchanged. Before President Trump signed the Bill, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said it 'remains firmly committed to ensuring energy security for its 1.4B people.' India's opposition party Indian National Congress (INC), said the only way to counter a 'bully' was to 'resist him forcefully'. INC president Mallikarjun Kharge said the tariff showed the government’s foreign and trade policies had 'miserably failed'. If the US President imposes tariffs on India, rising prices of petrol, diesel, and gas will affect all sectors, especially micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which account for as much as 45% of India's total exports. Panjab, an agrarian state, is already suffering from high diesel and fertilizer rates. A further hike in prices may crash the agrarian sector. The possibility of high tariffs also fuels fears about what the India-US Trade Agreement would look like, a warning Panjab’s farmers have been issuing for months (earlier coverage).