A senior US lawmaker has said that President Donald Trump is "grasping for excuses" to "slap outrageous tariffs" on India for purchasingRussian oil. US Congressman Brad Sherman highlighted that several countries, including Hungary and China, import Russian crude without any penalty from Washington, while an ally like India had been charged an additional 25 per cent tariff by the Trump administration, which now stands revoked.

"President Trump is grasping for excuses to slap outrageous tariffs on #India," Congressman Brad Sherman said in a social media post on Wednesday. Sherman, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee as well as of the House Financial Services Committee, said in the post that Trump claims tariffs on India are about importing Russian oil.

"Yet Hungary imports 90% of its crude from Russia with no tariffs. And China, Russia’s biggest oil buyer, hasn’t been hit with sanctions tied to purchasing Russian oil, though it has been hit for other reasons. India gets just 21% of its crude from Russia, but our ally is being singled out. The President should reverse this policy immediately," Sherman said.

Earlier this month, the US and India announced that they reached a framework for an interim agreement on trade, with Trump issuing an executive order removing the 25 per cent punitive tariffs imposed on India for its purchases of Russian oil. Under the trade deal, Washington will charge a reduced reciprocal tariff on New Delhi, lowering it from 25 per cent to 18 per cent.

The US president claimed that New Delhi has committed to stopping direct or indirectly importing energy from Moscow and purchasing American energy products. However, India has not yet confirmed or denied Washington's claim.

Earlier today, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Russia has "no reason" to believe that India has changed its position on buying Russian oil, which it said is beneficial for both countries and maintains stability in the global hydrocarbons market.

External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, at the Munich Security Conference earlier this week, hadsaidthat India is wedded to its policy of "strategic autonomy" and the country's energy procurement will be driven by factors like costs, risks and availability.

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Apoorva Shukla is a journalist at Times Now, where she thrives on dissecting political developments both at home and abroad. A graduate of Delhi Univ...View More

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