U.S. President Donald Trump has doubled duties on Indian goods, lifting the total tariff rate to 50% after citing New Delhi’s continued purchases of Russian crude. The move follows the breakdown of five rounds of trade talks in which Indian negotiators had expected duties to be capped at 15% in exchange for wider market access for U.S. energy and defence suppliers. Washington opted instead for a steeper levy that will apply from 27 August, ending what had been billed as a near-completed “mini-deal.” A Reuters reconstruction of the talks shows that India had offered zero tariffs on about 40% of U.S. industrial exports and a phased cut on cars and spirits. Misread political signals and disagreement over agriculture and dairy ultimately scuppered the accord, with officials on both sides blaming missed deadlines and hardening domestic positions. In a report released after the tariff announcement, Moody’s Ratings warned that the higher duties could trim India’s real GDP growth by roughly 0.3 percentage point to around 6.0% in the fiscal year ending March 2026. The ratings agency said the widened tariff gap with other Asia-Pacific countries threatens India’s push to build higher-value manufacturing such as electronics and could deter foreign investment. Moody’s added that any bid by India to scale back Russian oil purchases in order to avert further penalties may leave the country scrambling for alternative crude supplies, inflating its import bill and widening the current-account deficit. While the agency expects the two governments to seek a negotiated solution, equity outflows and a slide in benchmark indices in July and early August underscore growing investor unease over the escalating trade dispute.