A senior US lawmaker on Wednesday (local time) urged Donald Trump to dial down his tariff policy towards India, accusing the US President of singling out “our ally”.
Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman from California, in a post on social media platform X, suggested that Trump just needed an excuse to slap tariffs on India, and urged the US President to reverse his policy immediately.
“President Trump is grasping for excuses to slap outrageous tariffs on India,” Sherman wrote on X.
Comparing India to other major importers of Russian oil, the Congressman said, “He [Trump] claims it’s about importing Russian oil — yet Hungary imports 90% of its crude from Russia with no tariffs. And China, Russia’s biggest oil buyer, hasn’t been hit with sanctions tied to purchasing Russian oil, though it has been hit for other reasons.”
“India gets just 21% of its crude from Russia, but our ally is being singled out. The President should reverse this policy immediately,” Sherman said, calling on Trump to enact a swift policy change.
India-US interim trade framework
Sherman’s comments come weeks after India and the US announced in a joint statement that they had reached an interim framework for a long-awaited trade deal, which lowered reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods and services from 25% to 18%.
The announcement also coincided with Trump signing an executive order and removing the additional 25% punitive tariffs imposed on New Delhi for its purchases of Russian oil.
Prior to the announcement of the interim framework between Washington and New Delhi, Trump and his aides had, on several occasions, asserted that they had received commitments from the Narendra Modi government about stopping purchases of Russian oil, assertions that have not been confirmed by India.
‘Wedded to strategic autonomy’
Even days ago, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar rejected claims of being pressured by the US into agreeing to commitments on Russian oil.
Asked at the Munich Security Conference about being “forced” to “wean” India off of Russian oil, Jaishankar asserted that New Delhi was “very much wedded to strategic autonomy”.
Addressing “energy issues”, Jaishankar also said that in today’s “complex market”, oil companies around the world “look at availability, look at costs, look at risks and take the best decisions that they feel is in their best interest.”
Without addressing Trump’s assertion directly, Jaishankar also said, “We have a position, you know that…I don’t want to rehash the polemics of that. I think that phase has passed.”
However, Jaishankar also acknowledged that “many things” were “changing” and it was important to re-calculate and and find common ground in diplomatic relations.
Imports from Russia take whopping 40% hit in January 2026
Amid talks of India cutting purchases of Russian oil, trade data from January 2026 showed a whopping 40.48% decrease in merchandise imports from Russia, with crude oil being the worst hit.
Imports from Russia in January 2026 fell to $2.86 billion compared to $4.81 billion in January 2025, according to a Hindustan Times report which cited trade data.
Crude oil typically constitutes about 80% of India’s total imports from Russia, and in January 2026, crude oil imports accounted for $2.3 billion or less, HT reported citing people familiar with the matter.
Official word, however, is awaited: although the government released trade data for January 2026, it is yet to release data by product lines and countries.
