‘India coming to the table’: Donald Trump advisor Navarro again slams ‘highest tariffs’; rakes up Russia oil ahead of trade talks

India-US trade deal talks: US President Donald Trump Trade adviser Peter Navarro on Monday continued with his attacks on India over tariffs and trade deal, saying that it has the 'highest tariffs'. Navarro’s remarks come at a time when Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have called India-US relationship important.

Asked about the India-US trade deal during an interview tih CNBC, Navarro said, "India is coming to the table. Prime Minister Modi, sent out a very conciliatory, nice, constructive tweet and President Trump responded to that, 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."



Raking up the issue of India's purchase of Russian crude oil, Navarro said, "Indian refiners got in bed with the Russian refiners immediately after the invasion, and they're making out like bandits. It's crazy stuff, because they made money off of us in unfair trade. 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 this, for the defence of Ukraine. And so how can that be?"

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Talking about the recent meeting between PM Modi, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin at SCO, Navarro said, "...and watching Modi on the stage with China, which has been its longtime existential threat, and Putin - that was an interesting stretch, I don't think he felt comfortable doing."

Navarro has in the past called India a 'maharaja of tariffs', alleging that India's crude oil procurement from Russia is funding the Russian war machinery against Ukraine. He has also called the ongoing situation 'Modi's war' for India's continued purchases of Russian crude oil.

US trade negotiator in India for talks on Tuesday

Meanwhile, Brendan Lynch, the US chief negotiator, is set to arrive late Monday for brief discussions concerning the planned India-US bilateral trade agreement, a senior official from the commerce ministry has confirmed.

The planned sixth round of negotiations for the India-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA), initially set for August 25-29, was suspended after the US imposed 50% tariffs on Indian products. This followed five previous rounds of discussions.

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"Tomorrow's talks will be a precursor to the sixth round of negotiations," the official said.

Lynch, who serves as Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia, is due to land in India tonight.

In his role, Lynch supervises US trade policy development and implementation across 15 regional nations, including responsibility for the US-India Trade Policy Forum (TPF) and coordination of activities under Trade and Investment Framework Agreements (TIFAs) with regional partners.