TNI Bureau: Peter Navarro, the American economist who has been the senior counselor for trade and manufacturing to U.S. president Donald Trump since January 2025, justified Trump’s tariffs on India with arguments.
While justifying Trump’s 50% tarrif on Indian imports, Peter Navarro on his X handa said, “This isn’t just about India’s unfair trade—it’s about cutting off the financial lifeline India has extended to Putin’s war machine.”
Speaking more about the tariff on a series of X posts, Navarro explained how the India-Russia oil mathematics works saying the American consumers buy Indian goods while India keeps out U.S. exports through high tariffs and non-tariff barriers. India uses our dollars to buy discounted Russian crude.
“Indian refiners, with their silent Russian partners, refine and flip the black-market oil for big profits on the international market – while Russia pockets hard currency to fund its war on Ukraine. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian oil made up less than 1% of India’s imports. Today? Over 30%—more than 1.5 million barrels a day,” he said.
“This surge isn’t driven by domestic demand—it’s driven by Indian profiteers and carries an added price of blood and devastation in Ukraine,” h added.
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He further said, “India’s Big Oil lobby has turned the largest democracy in the world into a massive refining hub and oil money laundromat for the Kremlin. Indian refiners buy cheap Russian oil, process it, and export fuels to Europe, Africa, and Asia—shielded from sanctions under the pretense of neutrality.”
“India now exports over 1 million barrels a day in refined petroleum—more than half the volume of Russian crude it imports. The proceeds flow to India’s politically connected energy titans—and directly into Putin’s war chest,” Peter mentioned adding that While the United States pays to arm Ukraine, India bankrolls Russia even as it slaps some of the world’s highest tariffs on U.S. goods, which in turn punishes American exporters. We run a $50-billion trade deficit with India—and they’re using our dollars to buy Russian oil.
They make a killing and Ukrainians die. It doesn’t stop there. India continues to buy Russian weapons—while demanding that U.S. firms transfer sensitive military tech and build plants in India. That’s strategic freeloading.
The Biden admin largely looked the other way at this madness. President Trump is confronting it.
A 50% tariff—25% for unfair trade and 25% for national security—is a direct response. If India, the world’s largest democracy, wants to be treated like a strategic partner of the U.S., it needs to act like one. The road to peace in Ukraine runs through New Delhi, he clarified.
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