US President Donald Trump's decision to impose tariffs on India has been labeled as being "unfair and unworkable," especially since Europe remains the world's largest importer of Russian energy in dollar terms and is the biggest earner for Russia, according to a UK newspaper report.
The Telegraph pointed out the outrage in India, stating, "It's not only Trump's hypocrisy that has the Indians in outrage mode – it's the injustice of being penalized for violating no law. Russian oil sales are not sanctioned by the EU or US, but they are subject to a price cap intended to maintain world oil supply stable while restricting the gains for the Kremlin."
The report clarified that India has been following the rules by purchasing Russian oil at prices capped, processing it, and then exporting much of it to the European market. The subtext is that if India were to stop its Russian crude imports, it would precipitate a global oil price panic. Moscow is currently the world's second-largest oil exporter to global markets after Saudi Arabia, exporting around 4.5 million barrels a day to foreign markets.
It cited that in March 2022, soon after Russia invaded Ukraine, panic selling of Russian oil drove Brent crude prices to a peak of \\$137 per barrel—nearly twice the estimated price in 2025. Today, panic on the same scale could drive prices up to \\$200 per barrel, analysts caution.
The report went on to explain, "The eighteenth (and latest) European sanctions package ostensibly prohibits the importing of refined oil products derived from Russian crude. But aside from being technologically impossible to check, exceptions have been made for Canada, Norway, Switzerland, the UK, and the US, making the alleged 'ban' irrelevant. And let us not forget that Russian gas is not sanctioned or price-capped at all."
Headlined "Trump's reckless trade war with India could crash Europe's weak economies," the piece by British author and historian Owen Matthews also referenced recent events in which Trump's senior Russia negotiator and US Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian officials while Trump was issuing an ultimatum to Russian President Vladimir Putin to call for a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Witkoff, a Trump golfing friend and real estate developer, has no Russia experience to bring. But he will provide the one specific threat that his White House boss has made explicit – to levy trade tariffs against India as punishment for importing Russian oil," the report summed up.
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