News Desk: American economist Richard Wolff has ridiculed former US President Donald Trump’s fresh tariff strike on India, branding it nothing more than a “mouse trying to punch an elephant.”
Wolff, speaking to Russia Today, warned that Trump’s 50% tariff wall against Indian imports will end up hurting Washington far more than New Delhi.
He argued that India — now the world’s most populous country with historic ties to Moscow — will simply pivot towards BRICS markets, turning the bloc into an even stronger economic rival to the West.
Economist RIchard Wolff tells RT that America is “hothousing” BRICS with its aggressive tariff threats.
“If you shut off the US to India by big tariffs, it will have to find new places to sell its exports.
Just like Russia found new markets, India will sell its exports not to… pic.twitter.com/xEO4lGp0zS
— Margarita Simonyan (@M_Simonyan) August 28, 2025
“If the US shuts its doors, India will sell elsewhere, just like Russia did with energy. What Trump is doing is accelerating BRICS into a global alternative, while America shoots itself in the foot,” Wolff said, pointing out that New Delhi has already mended ties with Beijing.
The Trump camp has slapped a two-tier tariff: 25% over India’s existing import duties on American goods, and another 25% to punish New Delhi’s continued purchase of discounted Russian oil. The second round of duties comes into force on August 27, 2025.
Since the Ukraine war began in 2022, India has ramped up Russian crude imports to more than 30% of its total supply, refining and exporting petroleum worldwide — a move Washington claims indirectly props up Moscow’s war economy.
Defiant in the face of US pressure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday assured farmers and small-scale industries that India’s core interests “will not be compromised,” adding, “Pressure on us may increase, but we will bear it.”
With Trump’s tariff bombshell threatening to redraw trade equations, analysts say the unintended fallout could be the rapid consolidation of BRICS into a formidable counterweight to US dominance.
