Imposition of additional duty on India ‘national security issue’: White House trade adviser

The imposition of an additional 25 per cent duty on India is a “national security issue” associated with New Delhi’s “abject refusal to stop buying Russian oil”, White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro has said.

Last week, US President Donald Trump had announced 25 per cent reciprocal tariffs on India that came into effect from August 7.

The US president on Wednesday 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. 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, and added that “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.

Meanwhile, 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.