Trump’s tariff ‘will crush your economy’: US Senator warns India, Brazil, China
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Washington: US Senator Lindsey Graham has issued a warning to countries including China and India that the US President Donald Trump would ‘crush’ their economy by imposing steep tariffs if they continued buying Russian oil.
Lindsey Graham revealed that Trump was considering to impose 100 per cent tariff on oil-related imports.
During an interview with Fox News, the Republican lawmaker said that Trump had plans to impose tariffs on countries including China, India and Brazil if they continued to buy cheap Russian oil thus allowing the Russia Ukraine war to continue.
‘We're going to tear up the hell out of you, and we're going to crush your economy,’ Graham said.
Lindsey Graham, who had previously called for 500 per cent tariffs on goods from countries trading with Russia, said three countries buying around 80 per cent of Russia's crude exports, keep ‘Putin's war machine going’.
Pointing to India, China and Brazil, he said ‘What you are doing is blood money...He's (Putin) not going to stop until somebody makes him stop.’
In a stern warning to Russia, Lindsey Graham further said ‘The game has changed when it comes to you, President Putin. You have played President Trump at your own peril. You made a major league mistake, and your economy is going to continue to be crushed’.
Criticising Russia for invading Ukraine, Graham said Putin broke Russia’s promise in mid-90s to Ukraine that it would respect Ukraine’s sovereignty after it gave up 1,700 nuclear weapons.
Claiming that Putin was trying to create former Soviet Union, Graham said the Russian leader was ‘invading countries that do not belong to him’.
The US senator’s warning follows, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s threat to Brazil, India and China that secondary sanctions would be imposed all these countries if they continued to engage in trade with Russia.
India called NATO chief’s threat as ‘double standards’, with Foreign Ministry saying that ‘securing the energy needs of our people is understandably an overriding priority for us’, adding ‘We would particularly caution against any double standards on the matter’.
