WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): A day after the United States imposed 25% secondary sanctions on Indian goods as a penalty for India’s purchases of Russian oil, in addition to the earlier 25% reciprocal tariffs, the Trump administration kept up its tirade, terming the conflict in Ukraine as “Modi’s war”.
The U.S. Opposition Democratic party, however, criticized the move, saying that “singling out India” would hurt the U.S. as well. Former U.S. officials, including former Ambassador Kenneth Juster, expressed hope that the situation would be resolved at the highest levels, potentially through a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The penalty tariffs by the U.S. are the first such broad-based sanctions placed on India since at least 1998, when the U.S. stopped bilateral cooperation over India’s testing of nuclear devices. In 2019, Mr. Trump had also withdrawn India’s status under the Generalized System of Preferences for exporters.
‘U.S. taxpayers fund Modi’s war’
“India can get 25% off the tariffs right now if they agree to stop buying [Russian] oil and feeding the war machine,” said Mr. Trump’s trade advisor Peter Navarro, who has been leading the charge on tariffs. Mr. Navarro accused Indian negotiators of falsely claiming that India does not charge high tariffs, and of “arrogance” in refusing to cut oil imports from Russia, while “profiteering” from refining Russian oil in partnership with Russian refiners, a reference to the Vadinar refinery in Gujarat.
“Everybody in America loses because of what India is doing. Consumers and businesses lose; workers lose because India’s high tariffs cost us jobs, income and higher raises. The taxpayers lose because we’ve got to fund Modi’s war.” Mr. Navarro told the Bloomberg news agency, accusing India of “getting in bed with the authoritarians” like Russia and China.
‘Profiteering on Russian crude’
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called India-U.S. ties a “complicated relationship”, despite good ties between Mr. Trump and Mr. Modi, and said that the issue was not just Russian oil purchases but India’s failure to make a deal with the U.S. on trade.
“I thought India could be one of the earlier deals and they kind of tapped us along in terms of the negotiations. Then there is also the aspect of the Russian crude purchases which they’ve been profiteering on,” Mr. Bessent told Fox News on Wednesday, where he said the Indian rupee is at “an all-time low” due to recent developments.
Democratic lawmakers, however, attacked the Trump government, pointing out that China buys more Russian oil than India. In the past month, China has increased its intake of Russian oil even as India decreased its purchases.
“Instead of imposing sanctions on China or others purchasing larger amounts of Russian oil, Trump’s singling out India with tariffs, hurting Americans and sabotaging the U.S.-India relationship in the process. It’s almost like it’s not about Ukraine at all,” the Democrats in the House Foreign Affairs Committee said in a post on X.
‘Cooler heads needed’
Meanwhile, a number of former U.S. officials who have dealt with India in the past expressed their disappointment with the situation leading to the U.S. slapping 50% tariffs on Indian goods from August 27.
“Unfortunately, the United States and India have managed to convert what appeared to be a true and unprecedented win-win on trade into a remarkable lose-lose,” said Mark Linscott, former U.S. trade negotiator, who is now an advisor for The Asia Group and the U.S. India Strategic Partnership Forum, calling for “cooler heads who understand the value of the relationship” to prevail.
‘Stay open to talks’
Mr. Juster, also a former U.S. Commerce official who served as Ambassador to India during the first Trump term, told the Council for Foreign Relations that Mr. Trump believes the U.S.-India economic relationship has been “out of balance” for many years.
“Given the vibrant political discourse in India, [Mr.] Modi needed to respond publicly and firmly to the new tariffs. But he should also be careful not to paint himself into a corner and to remain open to discussing ways to resolve the current trade dispute,” he said, expressing the hope that the two leaders would meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in September.
Indian government officials, however, said that there were no plans for Mr. Modi to visit the U.S. for the UNGA at present.
(Agencies)
Great items from you, man. I’ve consider your stuff prior to and you are just extremely fantastic. I actually like what you have acquired right here, certainly like what you’re saying and the best way in which you are saying it. You make it entertaining and you still take care of to keep it sensible. I can not wait to learn far more from you. That is actually a wonderful site.
Normally I do not learn article on blogs, but I wish to say that this write-up very forced me to try and do so! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thank you, very great post.
This post is actually a pleasant one it helps new web viewers, who are wishing in favor of blogging.
Hello there! Do you know if they make any plugins to safeguard against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any tips?
You really make it appear really easy with your presentation but I in finding this matter to be actually something that I think I would by no means understand. It sort of feels too complex and extremely large for me. I’m looking ahead to your subsequent post, I’ll attempt to get the hang of it!
Just wish to say your article is as astounding. The clearness in your post is simply cool and i could assume you’re an expert on this subject. Fine with your permission allow me to grab your RSS feed to keep updated with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please carry on the rewarding work.
Incredible points. Outstanding arguments. Keep up the good effort.
Fantastic website you have here but I was curious if you knew of any message boards that cover the same topics talked about here? I’d really love to be a part of online community where I can get responses from other knowledgeable individuals that share the same interest. If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Bless you!
I am not sure where you are getting your information, but great topic. I needs to spend some time learning more or understanding more. Thanks for excellent info I was looking for this info for my mission.
Great post. I was checking continuously this blog and I am impressed! Very useful info specially the last part :) I care for such information much. I was looking for this certain information for a long time. Thank you and best of luck.
Howdy are using WordPress for your blog platform? I’m new to the blog world but I’m trying to get started and set up my own. Do you require any html coding expertise to make your own blog? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Greetings from Carolina! I’m bored at work so I decided to check out your site on my iphone during lunch break. I enjoy the knowledge you provide here and can’t wait to take a look when I get home. I’m amazed at how quick your blog loaded on my cell phone .. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyways, very good site!
Pretty component of content. I just stumbled upon your blog and in accession capital to assert that I get actually loved account your blog posts. Anyway I’ll be subscribing to your feeds or even I fulfillment you get entry to consistently fast.
Hurrah, that’s what I was exploring for, what a material! existing here at this blog, thanks admin of this site.
Wow, superb blog structure! How long have you been blogging for? you make blogging glance easy. The entire look of your web site is excellent, let alone the content
Spot on with this write-up, I honestly think this web site needs much more attention. I’ll probably be returning to read through more, thanks for the advice!
I have been surfing online greater than 3 hours these days, yet I by no means found any fascinating article like yours. It’s lovely worth sufficient for me. Personally, if all website owners and bloggers made excellent content material as you did, the internet shall be much more useful than ever before.
Howdy, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i was just curious if you get a lot of spam comments? If so how do you protect against it, any plugin or anything you can advise? I get so much lately it’s driving me insane so any assistance is very much appreciated.
That is very fascinating, You’re an overly skilled blogger. I’ve joined your feed and look forward to in search of extra of your great post. Additionally, I’ve shared your site in my social networks
Can you tell us more about this? I’d want to find out more details.
Your means of explaining all in this article is genuinely good, every one be able to easily understand it, Thanks a lot.
I was wondering if you ever thought of changing the structure of your website? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or 2 images. Maybe you could space it out better?
Hi, I log on to your new stuff regularly. Your writing style is awesome, keep it up!
Good post. I absolutely appreciate this website. Thanks!
That is a very good tip especially to those fresh to the blogosphere. Brief but very precise info… Thanks for sharing this one. A must read article!
There is certainly a lot to know about this subject. I love all the points you have made.
After exploring a few of the blog posts on your blog, I honestly appreciate your technique of writing a blog. I added it to my bookmark webpage list and will be checking back soon. Please visit my website as well and let me know what you think.