Trump's administration criticizes Europe over India deal
Scott Bessent (photo: Getty Images)
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Europe is financing a war against itself by buying Russian oil through India, ABC News and Reuters report.
"The US has made much bigger sacrifices than the European has Europeans have. We have put 25% tariffs on India for buying Russian oil. Guess what happened last week? The Europeans signed a trade deal with India," he said.
According to him, Russian oil goes to India, after which it is shipped from there and sold to Europeans.
What preceded this
Reuters reported that India and the EU plan to sign a free trade pact that is being called the "mother of all deals."
The document is aimed at expanding bilateral trade and increasing Indian exports of various goods, including textiles and jewelry, which have been subject to 50% US tariffs since the end of August.
The agency writes that the government of Narendra Modi plans to reduce tariffs on cars imported from Europe from 110% to 40%. Over time, these duties will be lowered to 10%, which will ease access to the Indian market for key European automakers, including Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW.
The agreement between the EU and India is expected to create one of the largest free trade zones, with a population of about 2 billion people and a large share of global GDP.
On January 22, prices for Russia's flagship Urals oil, which China buys, fell unprecedentedly due to reduced demand from India.
In addition, oil exports from Russia fell to their lowest level since August, as imports to India dropped to a minimum over the past three years. This put pressure on the price of Urals oil, for which China remains the only available market.
