Washington is piling on the pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
US President Donald Trump, in his latest salvo, has ruled out the possibility of trade negotiations with India until the issue of tariffs is resolved. And the White House trade adviser has called the imposition of an additional 25 per cent duty on India a “national security issue”.
Asked whether he expects increased trade negotiations with India since he has announced 50 per cent tariffs on the country, Trump told reporters at the Oval Office on Thursday: “No, not until we get it resolved.”
A US negotiating team is due in Delhi on August 25 for trade talks, but that is now up in the air.
Last week, Trump had announced 25 per cent reciprocal tariffs on India that came into effect from August 7. The US President also signed an executive order slapping an additional 25 per cent levy on India for New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil, bringing the total duties to 50 per cent, among the highest imposed by the US on any country in the world.
The additional 25 per cent duty will come into effect after 21 days or August 27.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro slammed India’s “abject refusal to stop buying Russian oil”.
Navarro, while talking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, said it is important to understand that the “rationale for the India tariffs is very different from the reciprocal tariffs”.
“This was a pure national security issue associated with India’s abject refusal to stop buying Russian oil,” he said. “Every American needs to understand the math of this because it is related to the trade situation.
“You start with the fact that India is the maharaja of tariffs, it’s the highest tariffs in the world charging on American products and it’s got a high non-tariff barrier so we can’t get our products in,” he said.
The US sends a lot of dollars overseas to India to buy their products in an “unfair trade environment”, he claimed.
“India then uses American dollars to buy Russian oil. Russia then uses those American dollars that come from India to finance its armaments, to kill Ukrainians, and American taxpayers are then called upon to pay for the weapons that have to defend Ukraine against Russian armaments paid for by American dollars that came from India,” Navarro said.
He said that it has “got to stop… That math does not work. The President understands the connection between economic security and national security so that was the bottom line there,” he added.
Navarro was asked why China, which buys more Russian oil than India does, has not been targeted the way Delhi has been with the doubling of its tariffs.
“As the boss says, let's see what happens. Keep in mind that we have over 50 per cent tariffs on China already…so we don't want to get to a point where we actually hurt ourselves,” he said.
“The President certainly will be working with China on that issue,” he added.
White House homeland security adviser Stephen Miller said, "It probably surprised people to know that India is one of the largest purchasers in the world of Russian oil and they could easily access oil from many other markets around the world.
“They are one of the largest funders of Russia's army for that reason,” he claimed.
Responding to the tariffs, the ministry of external Affairs has said that the targeting of India is “unjustified and unreasonable”.
“Like any major economy, India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security,” it said.
Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra said “much more is at stake” amid Trump’s tariffs.
He described as “unfortunate” that Russian President Vladimir Putin did not accept a ceasefire with Ukraine as wanted by Trump.
"Hurting India is to hurt Russia,” Batra said in a post on X. “But it hurts us too, much more,” he said adding that America needs the Russian president to enter into a “genuine” ceasefire with Ukraine, “free-of-deception by any, and then get President Xi (Jinping of China) and Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi to be American allies too, along with Putin.”
“It’s time for a mature reset, or we risk a domino effect that hurts all and unravels multilateralism and gives us unbridled chaos that even creative Wall Street and Federal Reserve can’t handle,” he said.