As US looks confused about India tariffs, 3 reasons why Trump aide Navarro is wrong

In the latest salvo on India, Peter Navarro, US President Donald Trump’s trade advisor, has called India a “laundromat for the Kremlin” .

The Trump administration has waged a multi-domain campaign against India with the purchase of Russian oil as a pretext. However, the basis of such a campaign is under question as senior administration officials have given contradictory answers about its basis.

Trump has slapped 50 per cent tariffs on India — among the highest in the world. He has also interfered in the Kashmir issue, undermined India on Operation Sindoor, aligned himself with India’s adversaries from Pakistan to Turkey, and taken positions on every issue that undermine India.

In the latest act of verbal aggression, Navarro on Friday accused India of running a “profiteering scheme” by importing Russian oil and selling it by refining it.

Navarro said, “Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, India virtually bought no Russian oil…It was like almost 1 per cent of their need. The percentage has now gone up to 35…They don’t need the oil. It’s a refining profit-sharing scheme. It’s a laundromat for the Kremlin. That’s the reality of that.”

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Navarro further India of “perpetuating the war” — ignoring the fact that it’s Russia that is the biggest buyer of Russian oil and the country that sustains the Russian war on Ukraine with its allies Iran and North Korea.

Here are three reasons why Navarro is wrong to go after India — and why it’s China, not India, that’s actually driving the Russian war machine.

China, not India, is biggest buyer of Russian oil

The Trump administration has completely ignored the fact that China, not India, has consistently been the biggest buyer of Russian oil.

Last year, China bought around 47 per cent of Russian oil whereas India share was around 38 per cent. But Trump has not imposed tariff on China.

Moreover, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) also played a key role in the export of Russian oil. But there have not been any punitive tariffs on China for facilitating Russian oil exports.

Cheaper oil from Russia is also very likely being relabeled and used as bunker fuel for ships that call at the ports of Fujairah, the West Asia’s busiest port for bunkering, and Khor Fakkan in the UAE, and ship tracking data from Refinitiv, Kpler, and Vortexa has indicated that Russian oil is being delivered there, a report from the Washington DC-based Middle East Institute noted.

US says China does the same as India but imposes no tariffs on it

In recent weeks, senior US officials have said both India and China have bought crude oil from Russia and sold it elsewhere after refining it into gasoline and diesel. But they have rewarded China and punished India for same actions .

“They [India] are just profiteering. They are reselling. This is what I would call the Indian arbitrage — buying cheap Russian oil, reselling it as product,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Tuesday, adding that India has made $16 billion in “excess profits”.

Rubio on Sunday said that China was doing the same thing — refining Russian crude and selling finished products elsewhere. But he said that this action was the basis of China’s exemption from tariffs.

“China just refines that oil [Russian oil]. That oil is then sold into the global marketplace and anyone who’s buying that oil would be paying more for it or if it doesn’t exist, would have to find an alternative source for it,” Rubio told Fox News.

Going by Rubio’s logic, India should be exempted from tariffs. And, as per Bessent’s logic, China should be punished. Instead, for the same action, the Trump administration is rewarding China, an adversary, and punishing India, a partner with whom the relationship had been on an upward trajectory for three decades.

China (with Iran & North Korea) drives Russia’s war machine, not India

While Trump accused India of driving the Russian war machine, the fact remains that its China and its allies Iran and North Korea that are actually driving it.

India just buys oil from Russia whereas China buys Russian oil and gas and provides with drones, raw material and machinery to produce weapons and ammunition, and dual-use technology and goods used for military purposes. China has essentially sustained the Russian economy after the West boycotted the country after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

For Russia, China has effectively replaced Europe in terms of both imports and exports, China researcher Amit Kumar noted in a paper titled ‘China-Russia Relationship: Assessing the Power Asymmetry’.

In 2023, China accounted for 30.4 per cent of overall Russian exports and 36.6 per cent of overall imports, the paper reported.

Not only are Russia’s exports to China dominated by energy, but a majority of Russia’s global exports are also concentrated in China, as per the paper.

“China has helped Russia cushion the impacts of mounting Western sanctions. Beijing on the other hand, has benefited from heavy volumes of cheap and discounted energy imports from Moscow. However, despite witnessing a symmetric gain in bilateral trade ties, China holds greater leverage over Russia owing to the shrinking export markets for the latter,” noted Kumar, a researcher at the Takshasila Institute, in the paper.

On their part, Iranian drones have been the mainstay of Russian war on Ukraine. And North Korea has provided tens of thousands of soldiers, armoured vehicles, artillery, missiles, and ammunition to Russia.

However, for Trump, it is not China, Iran, or North Korea that are driving the Russian war machinery. For him, India is driving the Russian war machinery.

As facts don’t support any of the stated rationale for Trump’s multi-domain campaign against India, one wonders if there is any policy-based rationale behind his actions or whether it’s the American president’s personal grudge against India.