Having tried negotiating with Vladimir Putin, Trump now appears to be using his favourite weapon of Tariffs on buyers of Russian Oil.  Today, India was first threatened with 25% tariff and then it was upped to 50%.  This could be very disruptive as many US importers have taken the trouble to move their manufacturing from China to India – notably Apple.

To avoid iphone meltdown, Trump has excised Apple from these measures after extracting more promises from Tim Cook to manufacture more in the US.  The future price of iphones however could be under significant upward pressure in any case.

The question remains  will this achieve the objective of stopping Putin’s war on Ukraine?

Image: Image: Shutterstock – Marc Bruxelle

Produced By: Roderick Chambers

Featured In Story: UTS Industry Professor and Chief Economist Tim Harcourt

First aired on The Wire, Thursday 7 August 2025