'Tell Trump if he pampers Pakistan...': Ex-ambassador pitches counter-tariff if US pressures India on Russian oil

Former Indian ambassador KC Singh on Monday said the United States is using tariffs not just as a trade tool but as geopolitical leverage, and suggested that if Washington links trade to India's foreign policy choices, New Delhi could respond by raising Pakistan in trade discussions.

Last week, Trump lifted the 25% tariff imposed on New Delhi for buying Russian oil. However, his executive order made it clear that the US will monitor India's trade and that if New Delhi restarts buying oil from Moscow, the 25% tariff will be reimposed.

Singh pointed out that China had already stepped in to absorb Russian oil volumes that India had reduced. "In fact, the Chinese have already upped their imports from Russia," he said while speaking at a panel discussion at India Today. "They're going to pick up that oil which India was taking immediately. It's gone up by a million barrels." 

"And President Trump is headed to China. He's going to be talking to them. He calls it a G2. He's really treating China entirely differently. High tariffs were levied on China, but then he rolled them back when the Chinese used the rare earths argument and said we'll stop the rare earths to you. Which means that the way to deal with Trump is to have something in your pocket with which you can negotiate and exert counterpressure."

The former diplomat contrasted that with India's approach and said India sat back and waited, and "then all of a sudden we do this and neither the details are available nor India is willing to fully explain what's happening." 

Singh questioned the logic of linking India's oil purchases to ending the Ukraine war. The justification for India being forced to stop the oil import is to help stop the Ukraine war, but, he said, the Ukraine war is affecting Europe more than it's affecting President Trump. "The Europeans came and did a free trade agreement. They didn't put any condition on India that you stop importing oil from Russia. They're the ones affected by the Ukraine war."

"The way the Ukraine war can be ended is that President Trump should be helping the Ukrainians militarily. He's pulled back that support. So, it's all just a very complex argument. But very simply, what he's doing is that trade deals are not trade deals. Trade deals are normally about balancing trade. He's using tariffs to try to influence the geopolitics or the diplomacy of another country and make it subservient to his opinions and his views. And that's what's happening here."

Pakistan as counter-leverage?

The former envoy then suggested that India should put a condition in the trade agreement that "tomorrow if he (Trump) pampers Pakistan and there's a terrorist attack on India then we'll impose tariffs on him." "That would be the equivalent of this. But there he's pampering their army chief. He's talking to them. He has no problem with that. If you bring in geopolitics into trade, then India can also have arguments."

When asked what India could realistically do, Singh said the messaging might not be public but should be clear in private. "Maybe publicly not, but what you could say in private is if you go on pampering Pakistan the way you are pampering them, then I'm sorry it's affecting India's national security, and we'll also bring it up in trade discussions. We are doing trade discussions, and he's doing a broad-based trade cum geopolitics."