Trump slashes tariffs on India after Modi agrees to stop buying Russian oil

Source: CNN Business

Updated Feb 2, 2026, 1:32 PM ET
PUBLISHED Feb 2, 2026, 12:36 PM ET


President Donald Trump on Monday announced he would reduce tariffs on Indian goods in exchange for, among other things, a promise to stop buying Russian oil.

That will be a tall task: India has been importing roughly 1.5 million barrels of Russian oil each day — even months after Trump placed tariffs on Indian goods as punishment — according to Kpler, a global trade data provider. Russian oil makes up more than a third of India’s overall imports.

Trump said in a social media post that he spoke Monday morning with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who agreed to replace the country’s Russian crude imports with oil from Venezuela and the United States. Venezuelan oil is of the same quality as Russian oil — heavy, sour and perfect for making derivatives like fuel oil and diesel.

It’s not clear, however, how long that transition may take. Venezuela’s oil infrastructure is dilapidated and requires about a decade of work and tens of billions of investment dollars to return it to the more-than-3 million barrels a day output it had achieved before the country’s Socialist government took control in 1999.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/02/business/india-russian-oil-trump-tariffs