Trump said India is willing to cut tariffs “very substantially.” At that time, he had said, “We are talking to India now. We will see what happens. It doesn’t matter too much whether we have a deal or we charge them a certain tariff. But you will know at the end of this week.” It’s not known what provoked the renewed assault on India, although Trump has been losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s apparent unwillingness to reach a peace deal in the war with Ukraine.
At a press conference, Trump again brought up BRICS and his belief that the grouping – which includes India, China and Russia – wants to sideline the dollar, although there isn’t much actual evidence of this. He described it as an “attack on the dollar and we are not going to let anybody attack the dollar. So it’s partially BRICS and it’s partially trade… We had a tremendous deficit.” BRICS also includes Brazil, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia. The president had termed India’s trade policies as “most strenuous and obnoxious” in his Wednesday post.
India’s Response
In a suo motu statement in both houses of Parliament, commerce minister Piyush Goyal said the government is examining the implications of the latest tariffs and is in consultation with all stakeholders, including farmers, exporters, MSMEs (micro, small and medium industries) and industry groupings. “The implications of the recent development are being examined. The ministry of commerce and industry is engaged with all stakeholders, including exporters and industry, for taking feedback of their assessment of the situation,” he said. Goyal’s assurance assumes significance as Trump’s punitive duty could significantly dent India’s goods exports of $85 billion to the US.”We will take all necessary steps to secure and advance our national interest,” Goyal said. This was similar to a government statement that was issued after the Wednesday tariff announcement.
An official ruled out any immediate retaliation against the US’ unilateral measure. “Since the situation is dynamic, we don’t want to jump the gun,” the person said.
On April 2, Trump had issued an executive order on reciprocal tariffs, imposing additional duties in the 10-50% range on a host of countries. The additional duty on India was announced at 26%, including a baseline tariff of 10%.>
