End of WTO Era, Seize Trade Pact Opportunity

ARSH Vardhan Shringla, who held a front-row seat to the first Donald Trump administration both as foreign secretary and Indian ambassador to the US, says Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit is likely to bolster not only trade but also the overall bilateral roadmap.

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He tells Jayanth Jacob that the WTO era could be over. Excerpts:

What is your perspective on the reciprocal tariffs? The preferential tariff systems have been in place for long, with developing countries benefiting from such arrangements. Now, with the US moving towards a reciprocal tariff system, how do you foresee this impacting the dynamics?

The visit on the whole has been comprehensive, and trade is one aspect of it. In terms of President Trump's approach to tariffs, it is non-discriminative. Both friends and foes alike have been covered under this. Let's say a quest for a certain level of parity; in a sense, the US has been exploited in terms of its state trading and trade preference agreements.

I had a ring-side view of President Trump's first term, and my sense is that his approach is that countries like India, Turkey, and a number of others are actually developed ones and that they don't deserve any preferential access to the US market. He wants parity in trade. Like it or not, the US is one of the largest markets for any country, including Canada and Mexico, to name a few, in the world. If we have to continue our trade alignments with the US, we have to make necessary adjustments in our approach to bilateral trade. Else, you face the issue of keeping on raising tariffs reciprocally, and it's a zero-sum game.

Are we moving beyond the zero-sum game?