US corn in Indian cars, as Trump tariff bargain, won’t be an easy sell
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US sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil may have finally succeeded in weaning India off Russian crude oil, a trade the Trump administration has blamed repeatedly for financing Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. But Washington, boosted by an emerging tariff truce with China, is far from done twisting New Delhi’s arm.As a precondition for slashing its 50% import tax on the world’s most-populous nation, the White House may insist on access to its energy market. Some demands will be relatively easy to meet. For instance, India’s state-owned refiners intend to buy more liquefied petroleum gas from the US at the expense of Middle Eastern suppliers, Bloomberg News has reported. In order to secure a trade deal, New Delhi is also prepared to make US LPG purchases duty free. As I have argued previously, Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest tycoon, may also purchase more US ethane to make plastics and petrochemicals. Things will get tricky, however, when US negotiators try to pry open the country...
