White House Trade Advisor Says Imposition Of Additional Duty On India ‘National Security Issue’

White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro on Friday said that the imposition of the additional 25 percent tariff on India is a “national security issue” related to New Delhi’s refusal to buy Russian oil, PTI reported. The United States President Donald Trump had levied an additional 25 percent on India on Wednesday. 

After the imposition, India is one of the most tariffed trade partners of the US. Navarro, while talking to reporters at the White House, said it is important to understand that the “rationale for the India tariffs is very different from the reciprocal tariffs”. 

“This was a pure national security issue associated with India’s abject refusal to stop buying Russian oil,” he said, and added that “every American needs to understand the math of this because it is related to the trade situation”.

“You start with the fact that India is the ‘maharaja’ of tariffs, it’s the highest tariffs in the world charging on American products and it’s got a high non-tariff barrier so we can’t get our products in,” he said. 

He asserted that India uses American dollars on Russian oil, which is then used by Russia to buy armaments to use in the Ukraine war. He further said that “That math does not work. The president understands the connection between economic security and national security so that was the bottom line there.”

He was also questioned on the fact that China buys more Russian oil than India and has sill has not been targeted in the same fashion. As the boss says, let's see what happens. Keep in mind that we have over 50 per cent tariffs on China already…so we don't want to get to a point where we actually hurt ourselves,” he said. “The president certainly will be working with China on that issue,” he added.