While speaking to reporters outside of the White House, President Donald Trump's senior counselor for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro answered a question about secondary tariffs on India punishing their purchases of Russian oil.
00:02How sustainable are those secondary tariffs against India, and how important are those to the whole Russia economy?
00:10Well, let's talk about India. I would refer you to the piece I did in the Financial Times that appeared on Monday.
00:18And the Indian situation is very interesting. A lot of people don't know this.
00:22But prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, India exported, excuse me, India bought virtually none, no Russian oil.
00:37You say that again, prior to the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, India bought virtually no Russian oil.
00:45I mean, it was like 1% of their needs. So the argument somehow now, as the percentage has gone up to like 30 and 35%,
00:56that somehow they need Russian oil to cool their homes or cook or drive their cars is nonsense.
01:04And what I do in the Financial Times article is I illustrate how Russian refiners have gotten in bed
01:12with Italian refiners in a game in which they get cheap Russian crude, follow me here.
01:22They get crude at a discount, and then they make refined products, which they sell at premium prices into Europe, Africa, and Asia.
01:32It's strictly profiteering by the Indian refining industry, big oil.
01:40Now, think about India when you think about the tariffs we're putting in place, 25% because they cheat us on trade, 25% because of the Russian oil.
01:51I ask you this, what is the net impact on the Americans because of our trade with India?
02:09So that hurts American workers, hurts American businesses.
02:13Then they use the money that they get from us when they sell us stuff to buy Russian oil, which then is processed by refiners, and they make a bunch of money there.
02:26But then the Russians use the money to build more arms and kill Ukrainians.
02:34And so American taxpayers have to provide more aid, military style, to the Ukrainians.
02:40So that's insane.
02:44And President Trump sees that chessboard beautifully, and you guys need to write about that.
02:50That's what's going on there.
02:52And in many ways, the road to peace runs through New Delhi.
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