After slapping an additional 25% on Indian imports to punish India for buying Russian oil, President Donald Trump has suggested he might do the same with China.
During a news conference on Wednesday, Trump was asked whether he would consider the same move for China, which is the other large buyer of Russian crude, and responded that it “may happen,” Bloomberg reported.
“I mean I don’t know. I can’t tell you yet. But I can — we did it with — we did it with India. We’re doing it probably with a couple of others. One of them could be China,” Trump said, as quoted by the publication.
Earlier on Wednesday, the U.S. president announced he would double the import tariffs on Indian goods as punishment for the country’s decision to continue importing crude oil from Russia.
“I determine that it is necessary and appropriate to impose an additional ad valorem duty on imports of articles of India, which is directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil,” Trump said, as quoted by the Financial Times.
Trump first threatened India with tariffs last week. New Delhi responded by saying additional tariffs would be unjustified and unfair, with the foreign ministry noting in a statement that the U.S. and the European Union continue to import goods from Russia despite their hawkish public stance on the country’s foreign policy.
In a later statement, India’s foreign ministry said that oil import decisions were “based on market factors and done with the overall objective of ensuring the energy security of 1.4bn people of India”. A spokesperson for the ministry said that “It is therefore extremely unfortunate that the US should choose to impose additional tariffs on India for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest. We reiterate that these actions are unfair, unjustified and unreasonable.”
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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