India-US Trade Talks: Navarro on Tariffs & Modi

New York/Washington, Sep 16 (PTI) Ahead of trade talks between Indian and US officials in Delhi, White House trade advisor Peter Navarro said India, which has the "highest tariffs" of any major country, is “coming to the table.”

His comments came ahead of the Trump administration's chief negotiator Brendan Lynch's day-long talks on Tuesday on the proposed India-US bilateral trade deal, which was impacted after the imposition of 50 per cent import tariffs by the US on Indian goods.

“India is coming to the table…The Maharajah of tariffs,” Navarro said in an interview to CNBC Monday.

He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sent out a “very conciliatory, nice, constructive” tweet, “whatever they do in India, and President (Donald) Trump responded to that."

Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India and the US are natural partners and teams from both sides are working to conclude negotiations on a bilateral trade deal. His social media post came in response to Trump's remarks that efforts are on to address "trade barriers" between the two countries.

"We'll see that, this is how this works. But as a practical matter, we know that on the trade side, they have the highest tariffs of any major country. They have very high non-tariff barriers. We had to deal with that like we're dealing with every other country that does that,” Navarro said.

Navarro, who has often targeted India over its purchase of Russian oil, said that the country had not bought such supplies before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“The Indian refiners got in bed with the Russian refiners immediately after the invasion… It's crazy stuff because they make money off of us in unfair trade,” he claimed, adding that American workers get impacted by this.

“Then they use that money to buy Russian oil, and then the Russians use that to buy weapons, and then we as taxpayers have to pay more for the defence of Ukraine. And so how can that be?”

The relations between New Delhi and Washington are on a major downturn after Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50 per cent including a 25 per cent additional duties for India's purchase of Russian crude oil. India described the US action as "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable".

Defending its purchase of Russian crude oil, India has been maintaining that its energy procurement is driven by national interest and market dynamics.

India turned to purchasing Russian oil sold at a discount after Western countries imposed sanctions on Moscow and shunned its supplies over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Navarro also referred to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the Chinese city of Tianjin last month, where PM Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping were photographed together and their bonhomie drew global attention.

“Watching Modi on the stage with China, which has been its long-time existential threat and Putin, that was an interesting stretch. I don't think he (Modi) felt comfortable doing (that),” Navarro said.

India and the US have been negotiating a bilateral trade agreement since March. So far, five rounds of negotiations have been completed. The sixth round, which was scheduled last month, was postponed following the imposition of 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods by the US.

Last week, Trump had said in a post on Truth Social that he feels “certain” that there will be "no difficulty" for India and the US to come to a “successful conclusion” in trade talks, and he looks forward to speaking with his "very good friend” Modi in the upcoming weeks.

PM Modi responded and said, “India and the US are close friends and natural partners. I am confident that our trade negotiations will pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential of the India-US partnership. Our teams are working to conclude these discussions at the earliest. I am also looking forward to speaking with President Trump. We will work together to secure a brighter, more prosperous future for both our people.