Trump warns India of substantial new tariffs amid sanctions over Russian oil imports.
President Trump has been slowly ratcheting up pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine. Because we’re not buying much of anything at this point from Russia, the only way to further up the ante of sanctions against Russia is to put in place what are called secondary sanctions. The idea is simple. We can’t sanction Russia any more than we are but we can sanction countries that are trading with Russia and keeping their economy afloat. Chief among those countries is India which has been buying up a lot of the excess Russian oil at discounted prices.
As Ed described here last week, President Trump was essentially presenting India with a choice. You can have access to our markets or you can continue buying oil from Russia but not both. He specifically threatened a new tariff of 25% on India, plus an unspecified penalty. Trump even suggested Friday that he’d heard India was planning to back away from Russian oil. And as of Friday there were reports that India was backing away from Russian crude.
At least four tankers carrying Russian crude are idling off India’s western coast as mounting sanctions and warnings of steep U.S. tariffs disrupt oil flows, the Indian business outlet NDTV Profit reported.
In response to growing pressure from Washington, Bloomberg reported that Indian authorities have instructed state-run refiners to draw up contingency plans and explore alternative crude suppliers, including Middle Eastern and West African producers.
The warning appears to have had a swift impact. Four major Indian state-owned oil companies, together accounting for over 60% of the country’s refining capacity, have already suspended purchases of Russian crude.
