How should India face Trump’s tariff onslaught
US President Donald Trump fired a series of missiles at India on Wednesday. The biggest one was the imposition of 25 per cent tariff plus penalty on goods imported from India. Trump is bent on punishing a defiant India for buying crude oil and military equipment from Russia. The enduring ties between New Delhi and Moscow have rubbed him the wrong way, never mind his jibe that he doesn’t care what India does with Russia. “They can take their dead economies down together,” he said with disdain. For the record, India is not only the fourth-largest economy in the world but also the fastest-growing among the major ones. Calling India a “dead economy” amid trade deal talks is a telltale sign: Trump is treading the path of provocation to test India’s patience and resilience. What he wants is to browbeat Delhi into conceding America’s demands, such as duty concessions in the agriculture and dairy sectors.
Piling it on, the President declared that the US had sealed a trade pact with Pakistan. He said Washington would work with Islamabad to develop the South Asian nation’s “massive oil reserves” and even wondered if Pakistan could sell oil to India some day. All this is obviously unpalatable to India, but the challenge is to resist the temptation of hitting back at Trump. Delhi should hope and pray that this too shall pass — sooner or later, he might realise that he is barking up the wrong tree.
It’s clear that Trump has taken upon himself the task of weaning India away from Russia. He is destined to fail if Delhi calmly holds its ground. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal told Parliament on Thursday that the government would take “all necessary steps to secure and advance our national interest”. It would be a tightrope walk for India — keeping trade negotiations with the US on the right track and also continuing with imports from Russia. Delhi is rightly unwilling to put all its eggs in one basket. Myriad options for exports as well as imports can hold India in good stead amid the Trump-induced turbulence.
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