Reject US tariffs, put trade deal on hold: Congress' Anand Sharma to Govt

New Delhi: Congress has slammed US President Donald Trump for signing the Lindsay Graham bill into an Act that empowers him to impose 100% tariffs on countries, including India, which are buying oil from Russia, and urged the Centre to reject the US push and put on hold the signing of an unequal trade deal with the US until the tariff issues are fully resolved.

Maintaining that Trump's "unjustified action" has serious implications for India's energy security, CWC member Anand Sharma, a former commerce minister, said, "Trump's tariff regime and action violate US' own international commitments and undertakings as a member of WTO. A domestic law cannot override US commitment made to WTO. This has been upheld in WTO cases challenging 301 measures taken by the US in the past... It is ironic that the US itself is annually importing uranium and fertilisers valued over $4 billion. These have been carefully kept out of the ambit of the Graham Act. This is hypocrisy and double standards."

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Sharma said: "India must firmly reject any such imposition and defend its sovereign independence of trading and economic cooperation with its partner countries. We should put on hold the signing of an unequal trade deal with the US until the tariff issues are fully resolved."

Calling the move "selective and discriminatory", Sharma said the US will not impose the punitive tariff on Turkey, Hungary and Slovakia who are NATO members and supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia.

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