- The Indian leadership must have anticipated how Donald Trump would go about imposing import tariffs on Indian goods ever since the talks between the two countries did not progress on expected lines to close the deal. Going by the look of things, Indian policymakers were preparing the grounds for a less-than-satisfactory situation emerging out of the maverick leaders’ whims and fancies-induced tariff war. Sooner rather than later, someone should call the bluff of the leader who has started believing that the whole world is at his beck and call, obsequiously submitting to his irresponsible conduct. China defiantly stood against Trump’s tariff threats, which forced him to renege and tone down the percentage substantially.
PC: Moneycontrol
- Intriguingly, Trump’s ire has turned towards India with the announcement of a 25% tariff on imported goods alongside an additional 25% for buying Russian oil. This is nothing but bullying of a sovereign country whose energy interests will have to be protected. Also, the hypocrisy on display is cringeworthy when countries are sitting on a moral pedestal and donning righteous demeanor, doing the contrary to what they exhort. Mind you, Washington is no slouch when it comes to buying from Moscow. What’s India doing wrong in protecting its own interests? When Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014, the US punished it with sanctions. US-Russia trade, which was worth over $38bn in 2013, slipped to under $35bn in 2014.
PC: The Statesman
- Further, $23bn in 2015, less than $20bn in 2016, and then started rising again from 2017, although Crimea remained with Russia. What changed was that Obama left the White House and Trump came in. In 2021, the last year before Putin invaded Ukraine wholesale, Russian exports to the US amounted to $29.6bn – almost the same as in 2012. This recap is important when Trump has imposed India with substantially higher tariffs for buying Russian oil. The same Trump who, in February, said Ukraine should have never started the war. Look at Europe, too. EU’s data shows it supplied 10.3% of Russian imports last year and bought 7.3% of its exports. Total goods trade between the virtuous and the sanctioned amounted to a not insignificant $78bn.
PC: Outlook Business
- This is much more than the 469bn India-Russia bilateral trade last year. And data from the nonprofit CREA shows EU’s spending on Russian energy last year – $25.3bn – was more than its financial assistance to Ukraine – $21.6 bn. That’s why the West’s moral grandstanding on the Ukraine war fails to convince. For Trump officials to accuse India of financing Putin’s war, while ignoring the EU’s Russia trade, and America’s own $3bn worth of Russian imports, is plain hypocrisy. How is it kosher for the US to continue buying enriched uranium from a sanctioned Russia to meet its energy needs, while frowning upon India’s purchase of Russian oil to fuel its growing economy? Doublespeak and duplicity of the highest order. Trump should reconcile now.
 while sanctioning India for similar economic relationships.){kind=link}