Indian exports to the US will now attract a 50% tariff, among the highest for all of US’s trading partners. Half of this 50% tariff is on account of India buying crude oil from Russia which the Trump administration has described as a major funding of the “Russian war machine”. The move is blatantly unfair. It is China, not India, that is the biggest buyer of Russian crude. Trump has imposed no such tariffs on China. European countries still buy
Indian exports to the US will now attract a 50% tariff, among the highest for all of US’s trading partners. Half of this 50% tariff is on account of India buying crude oil from Russia which the Trump administration has described as a major funding of the “Russian war machine”. The move is blatantly unfair. It is China, not India, that is the biggest buyer of Russian crude. Trump has imposed no such tariffs on China. European countries still buy a lot of gas from Russia, and were among the major secondary buyers of Russian crude refined in India. The US itself has not suspended its necessary trade with Russia, which includes difficult to procure commodities such as uranium. If these examples were not enough to show how unfairly the US is treating India, reports say that US oil major Exxon is now talking to Russian oil companies to resume business, including production in Sakhalin, that was stopped after the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022. These reports, including in The Wall Street Journal, have said the talks were conducted in secrecy and Exxon had Trump’s approval to begin the dialogue.
What does all this entail for India? Geopolitics need not adhere to propriety or justice. Countries must deal with the real world, good, bad or ugly, as it exists. Under Donald Trump, the US has shed away even a pretense of adhering to the rules-based order or being mindful of the interests of even its closest partners. India must accept this new reality, try to protect as much of its commercial and strategic interests vis-à-vis the US as it can, and seek diversification to compensate for what has been lost. It will take a deep synergy between the private sector and government to achieve this objective — but it is possible.
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