Scott Bessent signals possible rollback of India additional 25% tariffs
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United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated that the government may remove the additional 25% tariff imposed on India over its purchase of Russian oil. The additional tariffs stay till now.
He also stated that the US's European allies declined to impose tariffs on India for purchasing Russian energy because they wanted to sign a large trade agreement with India.
“I will also point out that our virtue-signalling European allies refuse to do it because they want to sign this big trade deal with India. And just to be clear, let's understand what's happening. Before the Ukraine invasion, approximately 2 or 3% of Indian oil that went into their refineries came from Russia.” He continued that the oil was sanctioned, it got deeply discounted and moved up into the high teens—17, 18, 19% was being refined.
“Huge profits from the refiners, but in the ultimate act of irony and stupidity, guess who was buying the refined products from the Indian oil? I mean, from the Indian refineries made from Russian oil. The Europeans, they were they are financing a war against themselves. They were financing the Russians,” he said.
January 2026
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Trump to drop tariff threat on Europe
US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he was dropping his plan to impose new import tariffs on eight European countries after what he called progress on a future deal related to Greenland and Arctic security. The decision came after a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and was announced on Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social.
The move follows Trump’s renewed focus on Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, which he believes is strategically important for the United States and its allies. Earlier, Trump had warned of steep tariffs on Denmark and seven other European nations if they did not agree to talks on Greenland.
Explaining his decision, Trump linked the tariff rollback to discussions on a broader security framework for the Arctic region. “Based upon a very productive meeting that I have had with the Secretary General of Nato, Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region,” Trump wrote. He said the proposed plan could benefit both the US and Nato allies. “Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st,” he added.