Trump aide sees ‘path’ to lift 25% tariff on India over Russian oil purchases

Noting that India's purchases of Russian oil have "collapsed", US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that there is a "path" to remove the 25% tariff imposed on India.

United States President Donald Trump has levied a 50% tariff on India, including a 25% tariff for buying Russian oil.

“We put 25% tariffs on India for buying Russian oil. And the Indian purchases by their refineries of Russian oil have collapsed. So that is a success. The tariffs are still on. The 25% Russian oil tariffs are still on. I would imagine that there is a path to take them off. So that's a check and a huge success,” he added.

He also slammed Europe for not imposing tariffs on India.

"Our virtue-signalling European allies refused to do it (impose tariffs) because they wanted to sign this big trade deal with India," he said.

Bessent accused India of importing and refining more oil from Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.

“Before the Ukraine invasion, approximately 2% or 3% of Indian oil that went into their refineries came from Russia. The oil was sanctioned. It got deeply discounted and moved up into the high teens – 17%, 18% and 19% were being refined. Huge profits from the refiners,” he said.

India had described the US action as "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable" while maintaining that its energy policy is guided by its own national interest.

India fell to third place among buyers of Russian fossil fuels in December, after Reliance Industries and state-owned refiners sharply reduced their crude oil imports, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

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