Trump launches tariffs against India.

 

Donald Trump and Narenda Modi. BBC/Reuters.

President Trump has issued new tariffs on India and is threatening them with additional tariffs due to their trade with Russia. BBC. India is one of the major buyers of Russian oil and have continued to buy oil since the war with Ukraine. Trump had already put into place a 25% tariff for Indian goods, but it is unclear what rate the new tariffs would be. India said that their companies were free to trade with Russia and criticized the fact that the United States does trade with Russia as well (though only $3.5 billion). Trump has said he will levy additional tariffs and sanctions on Russia if they do not come to the negotiating table before August 8th. 

My Comment:

I've got mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand, I do not support any efforts to end the Ukraine war short of ending all support of Ukraine and possibly joining the war on Russia's side. I think Ukraine has an evil government and we should not be supporting them in any way. Plus, these sanctions and tariffs could raise global oil prices as it would reduce the supply of oil. India would have to buy from some other country, which would increase demand. Though that assumes they will do so, which is no sure thing. India is part of BRICS for a reason, and I can see them continuing to buy Russian oil. 

On the other hand, I am not a fan of India. India has never really been a friend of the United States. They were closer to Russia during the Cold War and they never really had our back. They do almost nothing for us, but we do a lot for them, like helping to end their war against Pakistan. And we shouldn't.

India screws us over on trade. India has a huge trade surplus of around $40 billion and before Trump put the 25% tariff into place, their tariffs were a lot higher than ours. And that's not counting all the immigration fraud, remittances and other things India does to generally annoy the rest of the world. 

Indeed, even folks that dislike Trump might like these tariffs given how far the reputation of India has fallen. India is not popular, given how much they pollute the environment, abuse women and send millions of immigrants to every country on earth. Folks just don't like India right now so doing something against them, even if it's something as silly as trying to punish Russia. 

Will these new tariffs accomplish much? Probably not. India isn't a critical trade partner. And efforts to sanction Russian oil have usually backfired. Indeed, Russia's war economy is booming and even assuming that India decides to play ball, which I don't think they will, I don't think whatever sanctions and tariffs put into place will actually do anything. 

The good news is that this will also raise some more funds for the US government. Tariffs have been a financial boon for the United States and doing so has already raised billions of dollars, to the point that we were in the black for a month. I'd prefer we not trade with India at all, but if we are having to do so, we should try and wring every cent out of them.