Two great countries will get this solved: Bessent on India-US trade ties

US Treasury Secretary warns of fresh tariffs, calls SCO 'performative'; Trump says India's high duties block US firms while it buys oil and arms from Russia

Commenting on the ongoing trade differences between India and the United States (US), Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday expressed confidence that India and the United States would resolve their trade differences, even as he criticised India for not being “great actors” in purchasing Russian oil.

 

In an interview with Fox News, Bessent said, "I think at the end of the day, two great countries will get this solved. But the Indians have not been great actors in terms of buying Russian oil and then reselling it, financing the Russian war effort in Ukraine.” He further said that the “slow pace” of India-US trade talks was another reason to raise tariffs on Indian imports.

 

 

US President Donald Trump imposed 50 per cent tariffs on Indian imports starting August 27, which included a 25 per cent penalty for importing Russian crude and weapons.

‘SCO is largely performative’

In the interview, Bessent also weighed in on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit that concluded on Monday in China’s Tianjin, describing it as “largely performative”.

 

“This is a longstanding meeting, it’s called the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and I think it’s largely performative,” Bessent said. “At the end of the day, India is the most populous democracy in the world. Its values are much closer to ours and to China’s than to Russia’s.” 

The SCO summit was attended by several global leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin. On the sidelines of the summit, Modi also held bilateral talks with Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping to strengthen trade ties and cooperation between the nations.

Everything’s on the table: Bessent on Russia sanctions

Bessent indicated that the US is weighing “all possible options” for imposing sanctions on Russia, noting that strikes against Ukraine have intensified despite several requests for peace. He added that Washington is reassessing its approach after Moscow failed to uphold the commitments it made during last month’s Alaska meeting.

 

“I think everything's on the table. President Putin, since the historic meeting in Anchorage, since the phone call, when the European leaders and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy were at the White House, has done the opposite of following through on what he indicated he wanted to do,” he said.

India-US trade one-sided relationship: Trump

In a post on Truth Social, Trump once again criticised India for charging “unfairly high tariffs”. He argued that India’s high tariffs, “the most of any country,” have long prevented American companies from selling into the Indian market. “It has been a totally one-sided disaster!” he said.

 

“What few people understand is that we do very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us. In other words, they sell us massive amounts of goods — we are their biggest ‘client’ — but we sell them very little. Until now, it has been a totally one-sided relationship, and it has gone on for decades,” Trump wrote on Monday.

 

Trump further noted that India continues to buy most of its oil and defense equipment from Russia, rather than the US. "India buys most of its oil and military products from Russia, very little from the US. They have now offered to cut their Tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late. They should have done so years ago. Just some simple facts for people to ponder,” he said.