Raghuram Rajan, former RBI Governor, said the US’s imposition of a 50% tariff on India had less to do with the purchase of Russian oil and more to do with Delhi’s contradicting US President Trump’s claim of brokering peace in the May war. He said “Pakistan played well”, and escaped with just 16% tariffs.
Economist and former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Raghuram Rajan, claimed that the main reason the US imposed a hefty 50% tariff on Indian exports was not New Delhi’s purchase of Russian oil, but its counter to President Donald Trump’s claim that he facilitated the ceasefire during the four-day mini-war in May with Pakistan.
Rajan added that it was essentially the “personality in the White House” that drove the tension with India.
Speaking at the UBS Centre for Economics in Society at the University of Zurich on December 4, Rajan said that “Pakistan played it the right way”, adding that “the central issue was [about] personalities, and especially a personality in the White House” and “how they treated certain comments made by India after Mr Trump claimed credit for stopping a conflict between India and Pakistan”.
