White House trade adviser Peter Navarro once again pressured India to halt its purchases of Russian oil, accusing New Delhi of funding the “war machine” as Russia ramps up its offensive against Ukraine.
“India can get 25% off tomorrow if it stops buying Russian oil and helping to feed the war machine,” Navarro said on Bloomberg Television’s ‘Balance of Power’.
Navarro argued that India’s purchases of Russian oil at a discount help Russia kill more Ukrainians.
“Everybody in America loses because of what India is doing. Consumers, businesses and workers lose because India’s high tariffs cost us jobs, and factories, and income and higher wages. And then the taxpayers lose, because we’ve got to fund Modi’s war,” he added.
“I mean Modi’s war, because the road to peace runs, in part, through New Delhi,” he said.
The US official commented just after US President Donald Trump’s doubling of tariffs on imports from India to as much as 50% took effect on Wednesday, delivering a serious blow to ties between the two countries.
A punitive 25% tariff, imposed due to India’s purchases of Russian oil, was added to Trump’s prior 25% tariff on many imports from the South Asian nation.
It takes total duties as high as 50% for goods as varied as garments, gems and jewellery, footwear, sporting goods, furniture and chemicals – among the highest imposed by the US and roughly on par with Brazil and China.
The new tariffs threaten thousands of small exporters and jobs in India, including in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, and are expected to hurt growth in the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
Navarro said that India has the highest tariffs in the world. “There is no dispute about that if you look at the numbers. Then they [Indian authorities] say, ‘We are not going to stop buying Russian oil.’ What does that mean?”
“The reality is you’ve got to stop India and China from buying Russian oil. Do that tomorrow, and the war is over. If people just stop buying Russian oil, it’s only a matter of time before [Russian President] Putin doesn’t have the money to fund that war.”
“What’s troubling to me,” Navarro said, “is that the Indians are so arrogant about this. They say, ‘Oh, we don’t have higher tariffs. Oh, it’s our sovereignty. We can buy oil from anyone we want.’”
“India, you’re the biggest democracy in the world, OK? Act like one,” he added.
