Archive · 9 Dec 2025
Raghuram Rajan on Trump's 50% Tariff on India
Raghuram Rajan, a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, said that the high tariffs the US put on India were not mainly about India buying oil from Russia.
He thinks the real reason is a disagreement between leaders, especially about who helped stop a fight between India and Pakistan.
Rajan said Pakistan thanked the US President Trump for his help, but India said they solved the problem themselves.
This made Trump upset, and he put higher tariffs on India than on Pakistan.
Another expert, Anas Alhajji, said the US and Europe want to sell more things to India, not just because of the Russian oil.
He thinks they want to have a bigger business relationship with India.
Raghuram Rajan stated that the 50% tariff imposed by the US on India was not primarily about India's Russian oil purchases.
The dispute stemmed from a diplomatic disagreement over credit for de-escalating India-Pakistan tensions.
Pakistan publicly credited Trump for halting the crisis, while India maintained the ceasefire was a result of bilateral talks.
Anas Alhajji argued that US and EU pressure on India was aimed at gaining deeper market access, not related to Russian oil imports.
Rajan noted that Switzerland attempted to clarify tariff decisions to Trump, but it did not go well.
- Who
- Raghuram Rajan, former RBI Governor, and Anas Alhajji, analyst
- What
- Discussion on the 50% tariff imposed by the US on India
- When
- Not specified
- Where
- Not specified
- Why
- Disagreement over credit for de-escalating India-Pakistan tensions and market access
- Primary Category
- POLITICS
- Secondary Category
- International Relations
- Tertiary Category
- Trade Disputes
- Quaternary Category
- Tariffs
- Key Figure
- Raghuram Rajan
- Dispute Trigger
- Diplomatic disagreement over India-Pakistan tensions
- Tariff Imposed
- 50% on India
- Analyst's View
- Anas Alhajji
