India must reduce average tariffs, and also keep engaging with the US

It has been argued that the American consumer buys Indian goods and India uses the dollars it gets to buy discounted Russian crude oil, which is refined and sold across the world

White House Counsellor for Trade and Manufacturing Peter Navarro’s sharply worded piece on India in the Financial Times on Monday provided a clearer understanding of thinking in Washington and the kind of difficulties the Indian side must be facing in negotiating a favourable trade agreement. The basic issue with the positions of the Donald Trump administration is that it is mostly devoid of logic, fairness, longer-term thinking, and economic rationale. Mr Navarro has mainly justified the additional 25 per cent tariff on Indian exports to the United States (US) for buying Russian oil, on top of the existing 25 per