India's differences with US must be managed through firm negotiation, says Global Trade Research Institute
US Passes Russia Sanctions Bill
The bill now returns to the House of Representatives. The Senate used H.R. 5334, an earlier House bill, to carry the sanctions package. When the House reconvenes on August 31, it can approve, amend or reject the Senate version. If it makes changes, the two chambers must agree on identical text before the bill can go to President Trump.
The White House has supported the measure and has indicated that Trump would sign it. However, passage in the House isn’t certain. Some lawmakers are concerned about giving the President wider tariff powers and raising costs for American businesses and consumers. The legislation is named after the late Republican Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, who strongly supported tougher sanctions on Russia. His sister and Senate successor, Darline Graham, helped advance the bill.
What It Means For India
The bill doesn’t automatically impose a 100% tariff on India. Section 113 allows the US President to impose additional tariffs of up to 100% on goods from countries that continue buying Russian crude oil or natural gas 30 days after the law takes effect.
The bill’s sponsors have identified China, India, Slovakia, Hungary, and Azerbaijan as the five largest buyers of Russian crude. These tariffs would be added to existing US duties, including tariffs imposed under Sections 301 and 232, as well as antidumping and countervailing duties.
The US Trade Representative could raise or lower the tariff within a range above zero and up to 100%, depending on whether a country increases, reduces or stops its purchases of Russian energy.
While China buys more Russian crude than India, the bill gives President Trump wide discretion to set country-specific tariffs. Washington has previously penalised India while sparing China: in July 2025, it imposed an additional 25% Russia-related tariff on Indian goods, withdrawing it only in February 2026. Russia supplied 30.3% of India’s crude imports in FY2026, costing $40.8 billion out of a total $134.7 billion.
What Would It Mean To Give Up Russian Oil
Stating that discounted Russian oil has lowered India’s import bill, strengthened energy security and helped contain inflation, the Global Trade Research Institute (GTRI) has said that giving up under pressure would impose real costs on the Indian economy.
India is also buying substantially more energy from the US, with crude imports rising from $6.6 billion to $9.1 billion in FY2026, while total US energy purchases reached $12.5 billion. This included LNG worth $1.4 billion, LPG worth $896 million and petroleum coke worth $861 million.
Noting that Washington cannot credibly claim that India is shutting out American energy, GTRI’s Founder Ajay Srivastava said that “larger concern is America’s growing use of trade restrictions to enforce foreign-policy goals”, terming reciprocal tariffs, Section 301 investigations, forced-labour measures, sectoral duties and now Russia-related sanctions as turning of tariffs into instruments of strategic pressure.
Recommending that India shouldn’t allow tariff threats to determine its energy policy and continuation of buying of Russian crude as long as it is commercially attractive, he said that “differences with Washington must be managed through firm negotiation-not extending unilateral concessions that raise India’s energy costs and weaken its strategic autonomy.”