White House trade adviser Peter Navarro sought to raise pressure on India to halt purchases of Russian energy after the US imposed crippling new tariffs on New Delhi, casting the conflict in Ukraine as “Modi’s war”.
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“I mean Modi’s war because the road to peace runs, in part, through New Delhi,” Navarro said on Wednesday, referencing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
US President Donald Trump’s 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods took effect earlier on Wednesday, a bid to punish the country for continuing to buy Russian oil. It doubled the existing 25 per cent duty Trump imposed earlier this month.
By purchasing Russian oil “at a discount”, Navarro said, “Russia uses the money it gets to fund its war machine.” That, in turn, has taxed US resources in the form of requests from Kyiv for arms and funding, he argued.
“Everybody in America loses because of what India is doing. The consumers and businesses and everything lose, and workers lose because India’s high tariffs cost us jobs, factories and income and higher wages. And then the taxpayers lose because we got to fund Modi’s war,” he added.
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The 50 per cent tariffs, the highest “reciprocal levies” in Asia, will hit more than 55 per cent of goods shipped to the US, which is India’s biggest export market. While major products such as electronics and pharmaceuticals are exempt for now, the duties will hit scores of labour-intensive industries like textiles and jewellery.