Trump to urge G7 nations to impose high tariffs on India, China for purchase of Russian oil: Report

The US will reportedly put pressure on the G7 countries to slap India and China with sharply higher tariffs for buying Russian oil. The Trump administration is of the view that imposing high tariffs on India and China would force Moscow to come to the negotiation table to talk peace in Ukraine.

According to a report in Financial Times, finance ministers from the Group of Seven economies –  Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States – will discuss a US proposal for a round of new measures in a video call on Friday.

This comes as US President Donald Trump urged the European Union to impose up to 100 per cent tariffs on China and India. However, the EU nations might be reluctant to follow Trump’s requests as the union is discussing a trade deal with India, which may hence be jeopardised.

“Chinese and Indian purchases of Russian oil are funding Putin’s war machine and prolonging the senseless killing of the Ukrainian people…Earlier this week, we made it clear to our EU allies that if they are serious about ending the war in their own backyard, they need to join us and impose meaningful tariffs that will be rescinded the day the war ends,” said a US Treasury department spokesperson to the financial daily. The spokesperson said that the G7 partners need to step up with the US. 

Imposing steep tariffs on India and China would be difficult for the EU owing to the economic impact as well as a retaliation from Beijing. Brussels, however, is aiming to persuade the US to undertake other measures and tougher sanctions on Russian energy producers, as per the report. This would require Trump to put pressure on pro-Russia Hungary and Slovakia who continue to buy Russian oil through pipeline and have vetoed such measures in the past.

EU energy commissioner Dan Jørgensen said that they need to “get rid of the dependency” that they have on Russian energy.