The White House's trade adviser, Navarro, harshly criticized India for its purchases of Russian Oil in an opinion piece in the Financial Times, Commerzbank's commodity analyst Carsten Fritsch notes.

US punitive tariffs of 25% against India are set to come into force

"He accused India of acting as a global clearinghouse for Russian Oil, converting embargoed Russian Oil into high-value exports and giving Moscow the dollars it needs to finance the war in Ukraine. Such harsh accusations have not yet been levelled at China, even though China imports at least as much Oil from Russia as India."

"In July, China's Oil imports from Russia stood at 1.8 million barrels per day, while India imported 1.4 million barrels per day from Russia, as reported by the IEA last week. However, both figures were slightly lower than in the previous month."

"In just over a week, the US punitive tariffs of 25% against India are set to come into force. Following Navarro's latest comments, it is unlikely that these will be suspended."