Trump Is Penalizing 1.4 Billion People for the Actions of 2 Companies

9 comments

1. Classic move to pitch the population against its own companies.

2. It’s not penalizing 1.4 billion people. Let us not be so dramatic. This hardly impacts 0.5-1% of the Indian economy. I really expect serious publications to have a better handle on what headlines they put.

3. SS: In *Foreign Policy*, Syed Akbaruddin, former Indian permanent representative to the UN, argues that the Trump administration is wrongly conflating private trade with national policy by threatening sweeping tariffs on India over refined Russian crude exports. He notes that only two private firms — Reliance Industries and Nayara Energy — are involved, and blanket tariffs would punish thousands of unrelated exporters, harm goodwill, and weaken cooperation.

   While U.S. officials accuse India of profiteering, Akbaruddin points out that Western buyers, including American companies, also purchase from these refiners, making selective penalties hypocritical. He urges Washington to adopt Europe’s calibrated approach of stricter origin checks and targeted enforcement instead of blunt tariffs, warning that scapegoating undermines the U.S.-India partnership.

   Coming from a seasoned ex-diplomat and former flagbearer of Indian foreign policy, the piece doubles as elite signaling: India may tolerate, and some in the establishment may even welcome, firm-specific sanctions (Gospodin Magnitsky, anyone?), but not broad punitive measures against the country itself.

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5. I can’t read the whole article because of a paywall, but is the assertion that India isn’t responsible for its oil imports from Russia because private companies are doing it? Are we pretending that governments can’t control which countries they import and export from?

   If India wanted to stop its refineries from “laundering” crude oil from Russia and exporting refined oil to Europe, it could easily do so. Without arguing the merits of such a policy, the idea that it’s out of the government’s hands seems disingenuous.

6. anyway India will not submit to any unilateral measures. if u want 2 companies from selling russian oil then first stop buying and then second sanction russian oil off the market. India will not take policy dictates form a third party.

7. Trump is a cruel man. No decency only revenge. Not something to admire in a leader.

8. That is an inaccurate take for two reasons, first Trump is barely “penalizing” 1.4B people. Tariffs won’t have significant impact since big chunk of Indian economy is domestic consumption. Also, news is that Indian government is considering lowering GST, which will further boost domestic consumption. Second, government cannot blame it on private companies. There was an attempt by minister Hardeep Puri saying “We don’t ask our companies go buy Russian oil. We ask our companies go buy oil”. Sounds good in theory, but practically, these are not purely business decisions, geopolitical considerations and government intervention is involved.

9. This is true.. Ambani is already one of the richest people in the world.. now all of India has to suffer because of his actions and greed. Despicable how the actions of the rich – don’t affect them, and the masses have to pay the price.

   Wish more Indians could recognise this

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