Trump Signs 100% Tariff Threat on Russian Oil Buyers, Squeezing India
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Sep 19
Trump Signs 100% Tariff Threat on Russian Oil Buyers, Squeezing India
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 19
Summary
India faces fresh trade uncertainty after Trump signed a sanctions law empowering him to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries that keep buying Russian energy.
The measure is meant to choke off revenue funding Moscow’s war in Ukraine, but it leaves Trump broad discretion over whether and when to hit buyers such as India.
India is especially exposed because it imports more than 90% of the crude it consumes, and Russian oil supplied roughly half of its imports this summer, according to Kpler.
That dependence has risen again as the war in Iran disrupted Middle East supplies, putting Prime Minister Narendra Modi under added pressure in already fraught U.S.-India trade ties.
The law extends a pattern of shifting U.S. policy that has repeatedly forced India to recalibrate its Russian oil purchases while Washington weighs pressure on Moscow against wider trade costs.