New Delhi, Aug. 7 -- White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro explained on Thursday as to why the United Stated targeted India with a 50% tariff for buying Russian oil and not China even though the later buys more oil than India.

"They [China] have not been targeted for that. So why is India having these tariffs," the reporter asked.

In response, Navarro said the US wants to impose tariffs on China without hurting its own economy.

"As the boss says, let's see what happens. Keep in mind that we have over 50 per cent tariffs on China already. We have over 50 per cent tariffs on China, so we don't want to get to a point where we actually hurt ourselves. And I think I've given a really good answer to that," Navarro said, as per C-SPAN.

His...