Strategic resilience must for trade

India’s focus on diversification has absorbed shocks from high tariffs, but the next steps must include policies that build strategic resilience in terms of global supplies, the Economic Survey stated.

- Rajeev Jayaswal

It cited ongoing trade negotiations with the US as being expected to conclude during the year and added that the US move to impose 25% punitive tariff on Indian merchandise in August 2025 on top of a 25% reciprocal tariff “surprised many”.

Although the US President announced reciprocal tariffs of 25% on India in April, India was expected to strike an early agreement with the US administration and lower them. “So, in August, when the American President announced an additional penal tariff of 25% on most of India’s merchandise exports to the United States on top of the reciprocal tariff of 25% announced in April, it surprised many since India was expected to be one of the early winners in the new tariff regime of the US,” it said.