The 50% tariffs on Indian exports to the US became effective on Wednesday (August 27), making India one of the most tariffed nations in the world.US President Donald Trump had announced the decision to double tariffs on India from 25% earlier this month in an emergency executive order titled “Addressing Threats to the US by the Russian Federation”, in which he singled out India for its continued imports of Russian oil directly or indirectly. The order at large claimed that Russia and Russian products posed an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States”.By this logic, China, the world’s largest importer of Russian oil and Russia’s major trading partner, should have been singled out. China imported a whopping 109 million tonnes of Russian oil last year, according to Chinese customs data. In contrast, India imported 88 million tonnes of Russian oil during this period.However, Trump has sought to downplay this discriminatory tariff policy, telling reporters on August 15 that he did not immediately need to consider retaliatory tariffs against China but would probably take a call “in two or three weeks.”Why has Trump now spared China in his current tariff onslaught? We explain in three points.China’s ace up its sleeve is its repository of rare earths, which are primarily used in the manufacture of high-value goods, ranging from everyday items like smartphones and electronic displays, to those in the fields of defence and clean energy.Rare earth metals, or rare earth elements (REEs), are a group of 17 chemical elements on the periodic table with similar chemical properties and are silver-coloured in appearance. While these elements are not as rare as their name suggests, it has thus far been unusual to find concentrated and economically mineable deposits of REEs, despite their relative abundance compared to silver, gold or platinum.Story continues below this adAlso Read | Top 5 questions on Donald Trump’s tariffs, and how The Indian Express answered themSince the 1990s, China has maintained indisputable dominance over rare earths, supplying 85-95% of global demand. It also has unparalleled experience in refining REEs compared to other nations.The extent of this advantage first became apparent in April. Two days after Trump announced the “Liberation Day” tariff laundry list, China announced export controls on seven rare earths on April 4. The move impacted the global automotive and auto parts industry, forcing several factories to temporarily shut down and cease production until the issue was resolved in the June truce between the US and China. Despite complaints from the US about the sluggish pace of resuming rare earths trade, China’s exports of rare earth magnets have reportedly recovered to pre-tariff levels, with CNBC reporting a 660% increase in magnet sales to the US over the previous month.Immediate action over dialogueAt the start of his global tariff campaign, Trump singled out China, along with Canada and Mexico, in February for exporting fentanyl to the US. He announced a 10% fentanyl tariff on the three nations, doubling this to 20% in March. (This tariff is separate from the “Liberation Day” tariffs and has remained in place to date.) China did not seek talks with the US and immediately announced countermeasures targeting Liquefied Natural Gas, coal, and farm machinery, among other products.Announcing countermeasures against China at this juncture would risk a revival of the debilitating trade war witnessed between April and June. The US would be keen on extracting an agreement from China that ensures rare earths protections.Story continues below this adOn August 11, the US and China extended their tariff truce for a second time for another 90 days – the first tariff pause was announced on May 11. At the height of the US-China trade war earlier this year, the US announced blanket ‘retaliatory’ tariffs of 145% on Chinese imports, to which China slapped 125% in countermeasures.Russian oil a “diversified input” for China: BessentIn an interview with CNBC on August 19, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed that “some of the richest families” in India had made “$16 billion in excess profits” from cheap Russian oil imports ever since the Russia-Ukraine war commenced in 2022.“They are just profiteering. They are reselling,” Bessent said. “This is what I would call the Indian arbitrage — buying cheap Russian oil, reselling it as product.”In contrast, he held that Chinese imports of Russian oil were less problematic given its long-held association with Russia before the war.