Top Trump Advisor Responds To Modi And Putin's Show Of Unity

Forbes Breaking News

At a press gaggle, Peter Navarro, President Trump's top trade advisor, responded to the show of unity between Indian PM Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Transcript

00:00its way with us. Okay, take some questions.

00:03A couple questions for you. Yes, ma'am. Are you concerned at all about the show of unity

00:05between Putin, Xi, and Modi? And then the second follow-up, we saw

00:09Trump's truth about India, saying that they're going to cut those tariffs to nothing.

00:13Can you fill us in on the status of where the trade is right now with India, the negotiations?

00:19Here's what I can tell you, and again, I'd refer you to the article I wrote

00:23in the Financial Times on this, which goes into it. Here's

00:27the problem with India. It's a two-pronged problem. There's 50%

00:31tariffs on India. 25% of them is a reciprocal

00:35tariff because of unfair trade. 25% is the fact that India's

00:39buying oil from Russia. So start with the

00:43reciprocal trade tariffs. The problem is that

00:47India literally is the Maharaja of tariffs. It has the highest

00:51tariffs of any major country in the world, and it's in denial

00:56about that. It tries to tell everybody out there

00:59that that's not true, and it is demonstrably true.

01:03So they should engage with us. They haven't done that

01:08as Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, the European Union has.

01:14They simply think they continue having their way with us.

01:20President Trump's not going to allow that.

01:21Now, with respect to the tariffs, the 25% tariffs on India's

01:29buying oil from Russia, this is an incredible situation.

01:35Every one of you, when you report this story, should report the following fact.

01:39This is the first fact. India, for all practical purposes, did not buy any oil to

01:45speak of, from Russia before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

01:51How many of you knew that? Probably not many.

01:54The way this oil trade worked is once Russia invaded and they were figuring out ways around

02:03to sell their oil. Russian refiners went to refiners in India, got in bed with them.

02:12Some of them actually helped produce right in India now.

02:16Putin gives India a discount on crude.

02:21They refined it, sell at premium prices to Europe, Asia, and Africa.

02:26It's nothing but profiteering. India cannot stand on the thin reed that somehow they need this oil

02:33to run their cars or cool their homes. It's false. Just simply false.

02:41And so here's how this works. This is the crazy math of this for the American people.

02:46Listen to me carefully here. India charges the highest tariffs in the world, has the highest

02:52non-tariff barriers. So they export a bunch of stuff to us. We can't export to them.

02:59Our workers and our businesses get hammered by India.

03:04India then uses the money we give them, buying their exports, to buy Russian oil.

03:13The Russians use the money from the Russian oil to build more bombs and weapons and drones

03:20to kill Ukrainians. And then the Ukrainians come to us in Europe to ask for more money

03:29from our taxpayers to pay for that. That's crazy.

03:35So the road to peace in many ways runs at least partly through New Delhi.

03:41It's time for Modi to step up. I have great respect for Modi.

03:46I love the Indian people. It was a shame to see Modi getting in bed as the leader of the

03:55biggest democracy in the world with the two biggest authoritarian dictators in the world

03:59in Putin and Xi Jinping. That doesn't make any sense. I'm not sure what he's thinking, particularly

04:06since India has been in a cold war and sometimes a hot war with China for decades.

04:14So we hope that the Indian leader comes around to seeing that he needs to be with us in Europe

04:26and Ukraine and not with Russia on this. And he needs to stop buying the oil.

04:30And why not impose those secondary sanctions on China, which is a massive...

04:35Well, that's a separate issue. I would just remind you that we have now 50 percent tariffs on India.

04:43How much do we have on China? How much do we have on China? What's that?

04:4830 percent.

04:48No, it's over 50 percent total on China.

04:52Okay, so the question is, how much more can you do? And there's a lot of things going on there.

04:58So I think that this issue is complex, but at a minimum, India's got to stop doing.

05:07You got a follow-up? No, go here.

05:09Well, back to my first question about the show.

05:11Who are you with, by the way?

05:11I'm Kit with The Pool today.

05:13Oh, gotcha.

05:13Yeah.

05:14I first asked about the show of unity between Xi, Putin, and Modi.

05:20Yeah, it's troublesome. It's troublesome. India is the biggest democracy in the world by population.

05:27Historically, India has been in a Cold War with Communist China for decades.

05:35China has funded Pakistan's military. China helped Pakistan develop its nuclear weapons.

05:46China has invaded India repeatedly, particularly in a place called Aksai Chin.

05:53I don't know if you're aware of that area, and actually has taken territory from India and still holds it.

06:02The Chinese patrol now far into the Indian Ocean and are challenging Indian sovereignty in the Indian Ocean.

06:11But at the same time, we're seeing China and its entrepreneurs and oil refiners getting into bed with Indian business people,

06:24and that relationship is toxic.

06:27I mean, a lot of this dumping that occurs, China now is using India as a big transshipment hub

06:34for all sorts of products to avoid the Chinese tariffs.

06:40So let's see what happens.

06:42President Trump, every American should thank President Trump for flagging this issue

06:49and calling India out on these issues,

06:53because we don't want to be about the business of trying to defend Ukraine with funds and weapons and things like that

07:00when our money is going to somebody who's cheating us and they're using that money to give to the Russians

07:06to buy weapons, kill Ukrainians, and then use their taxpayer money.

07:10All right. I'll take just a couple more.

07:12Sure.

07:13What?

07:14Understand.

07:14Here we go, let's see.

07:30And the next you have, let's see.

07:33Let's see.

07:33Here we go.

07:36Here we go.

07:37There we go.

07:40Here we go.

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