US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US has made “much bigger sacrifices” than the Europeans have, highlighting that it even imposed an additional 25 per cent tariff on India for procuring Russian crude.
As India and the European Union have finalised the free trade deal, the United States (US) has taken a jibe at the EU, with Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent saying the Europeans are “financing the war” against themselves. It should be mentioned here that India and the EU are yet to sign the deal, though they have declared it has been “finalised”.
In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, Bessent said the US has made “much bigger sacrifices” than the Europeans have, highlighting that it even imposed an additional 25 per cent tariff on India for procuring Russian crude. He even pointed that President Donald has been negotiating for a settlement of the nearly four-year Russia-Ukraine war.
“We have put 25 percent tariffs on India for buying Russian oil. Guess what happened last week?” the US treasury secretary said. “The Europeans signed a trade deal with India. They — and just to be clear again, the Russian oil goes into India. The refined products come out, and the Europeans buy the refined products. They are financing the war against themselves.”
India, EU concludes negotiations for FTA
The negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the EU began in 2007 but were halted in 2013. They were restarted again in 2022, and the two sides have successfully concluded negotiations, said Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal on Monday. The FTA will likely be signed this year and will come into effect from next year.ย
Notably, the development comes when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is on a three-day visit to India, during which she also attended the 77th Republic Day celebrations. Earlier in the day, she also called for a ‘successful’ India, saying it would help in making the entire world more ‘stable’, ‘prosperous’ and ‘secure’.ย
As of now, Indian goods attract 3.8 per cent tariffs in EU. Although labour-intensive sectors attract about 10 per cent import duty. India’s weighted average duty on EU goods is about 9.3 per cent, with particularly high duties on automobiles, parts (35.5 per cent), plastics (10.4 per cent), and chemicals and pharmaceuticals (9.9 per cent). In an FTA, two sides reduce or eliminate import duties on over 90 per cent of goods traded between them.
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