US President Donald Trump’s Trade Advisor and White House official Peter Navarro on Thursday explained why the country did not slap additional tariffs on China for doing trade with Russia, even as hit India with extra duties.
“As the boss says, let’s see what happens. Keep in mind that we have over 50 per cent tariffs on China already. We have over 50 per cent tariffs on China, so we don’t want to get to a point where we actually hurt ourselves. And I think I’ve given a really good answer to that,” Navarro said.
A video of his remarks quickly went viral on social media, hours after Donald Trump announced 25 per cent additional tariffs on India for buying Russian oil, hiking the total duties to 50 per cent.
Half of these duties have now come into effect with the end of Trump’s deadline for reciprocal tariffs.
Navarro also criticised India as he explained US’s rationale behind imposing tariffs on the country. The White House official said India uses American dollars to pay Russia for energy, and Russia in turn uses the money to finance its military to kill Ukrainians.
“And then 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,” he added.
Calling India, the “maharaja of tariffs”, Navarro said, “It’s important to understand that the rationale for the Indian tariffs are very different from the reciprocal tariffs. This was a pure national security issue associated with India’s abject refusal to stop buying Russian oil.”
Following days of being engaged in a tariff war which saw both countries slap duties going above 120% on each other, China and the US reached a deal in May this year, to slash reciprocal tariffs for 90 days, and the truce is set to expire on August 12.
Presently, the US charges 30 per cent tariffs on Chinese imports.
When asked if an India-like additional tariff announcement can be expected for China as well, Trump said earlier today, “Could happen. Depends on how we do. Could happen.”
Answering another question on secondary sanctions from the White House, Trump said, “It may happen. I mean I don’t know. I can’t tell you yet but I can. We did it with India. We’re doing it probably with a couple of others. One of them could be China.”
He was asked why only India was singled out even though several other countries bought oil from Russia, to which he said many secondary sanctions were upcoming. “It’s only been 8 hours. So let’s see what happens. You’re going to see a lot more…You’re going to see so much secondary sanctions,” he said.
Trump’s additional tariffs announcement came nearly a month after he threatened 100% tariffs on Russia if didn’t reach a peace deal with Ukraine, also announcing secondary sanctions for countries doing business with Russia.
(With ANI inputs)
