The United States trade negotiators have informed their Indian counterparts that curbing purchases of Russian oil is a crucial element required to reduce India’s tariff rate and finalize a bilateral trade deal, two people familiar with the talks told Reuters.
While a US official stated that the trade negotiations are on a positive track, they emphasized that more work is needed to ensure India addresses US concerns over market access, the trade deficit, and most notably, purchases of Russian oil.
US President Donald Trump has been actively seeking to pressure India, the European Union, and NATO members to curb their purchases of Russian oil as a strategy to diminish Moscow’s revenue and expedite an end to the war in Ukraine. The Trump administration has demonstrated a willingness to utilize “maximum leverage” to advance its policy objectives, as evidenced by its direct linkage of trade negotiations with India to demands that New Delhi restrict its Russian oil purchases.
Trump has expressed growing frustration over the slow progress in resolving Russia’s war in Ukraine, a conflict he had pledged to resolve on his first day in office.
To pressure New Delhi into halting its imports of discounted Russian crude, the US has imposed an extra 25% tariff on imports from India. This brings the total punitive duties on Indian goods to 50% and has strained the trade negotiations between the two democracies. In contrast, Trump has refrained from imposing additional tariffs on Chinese imports over China’s continued purchase of Russian oil, as his administration navigates a delicate trade truce with Beijing.
India and China are the two largest buyers of Russian oil, which is already subject to numerous US sanctions designed to constrain Moscow’s access to global markets. India has responded by defending its oil imports, highlighting the economic benefits and accusing Western nations of hypocrisy for continuing their own trade with Russia despite imposing sanctions.
