Jitters over US tariff rulings

FOR MONTHS, Indian trade officials have been racing to finalise an agreement with Washington — a process thrown into high gear after the US announced broad tariffs on April 2 targeting nearly 60 countries, including India.

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The levies, announced by US President Donald Trump, intensified pressure on New Delhi to close a deal.

But Indian negotiators and their counterparts around the world woke up on Thursday to news that a US federal court had blocked the bulk of Trump’s tariff measures. Then, on Thursday, an appeals court overturned the decision.

In more than a dozen negotiations with the US, the threat of blanket tariffs as a pressure tactic may have been blunted almost as quickly as it was deployed.

“I'm sure in every capital, including in India, there are internal discussions about whether the US has less leverage now,” said Mark Linscott, a former US trade negotiator.

Trump’s April 2 global-tariff blitz marked a dramatic pivot toward protectionism, imposing a blanket 10% levy on nearly all imported goods, with steeper rates for select countries such as India. The federal Court of International Trade ruled on Wednesday that the president had overstepped his authority, and that a law he invoked to impose the levies did not allow Trump to “impose unlimited tariffs on goods from nearly every country in the world.” On Thursday, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said that it would temporarily pause the effects of the Wednesday decision.