Trump rows back threat of 'secondary tariffs' against India and China after Putin summit

[thesquanderer]

11. No, U.S. is not setting a tariff on the oil. The tariff would be on other goods coming from India to the U.S.,

as "punishment" for buying Russian oil. This hurts the Indian economy by making their goods that much more difficult to sell in the U.S., by making them so much more expensive. That's where the leverage comes from. Essentially saying to India, "stop buying Russian oil, and we will re-open these American markets to you on more favorable terms." The secondary impact is, if India indeed stops buying Russian oil, it hurts the Russian economy, which would be the actual goal of this policy. The idea being that while not tariffing Russia directly, they (the "secondary" target, if you will) would be the ones to ultimately feel the impact.