India Riding Out the Tariff Storm

Countries across the world have been affected by the policies and policy shifts of the White House since Donald Trump took over as President of the US on January 20.

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Like him or dislike him, Donald Trump won the 2024 election and is still at the start of his second and final term as the US President. Being an individual obsessed with figures, his loyal lieutenants have estimated the earnings to the US Treasury from the many tariffs he has imposed as $300 billion, which is not a very substantial sum in an economy where economists speak not of billions but of trillions of US dollars.

In reality, the cost to the US taxpayer of the effect of such a welter of tariffs on US and allied security would be much more. Tariffs on China are understandable in view of the US need to ensure the failure of the intensified effort of the CCP under General Secretary Xi Jinping to displace Washington, with Beijing as the geopolitical centre of gravity in the world. In such an effort, South Korea and Japan would be the closest allies of the US in the region surrounding Taiwan. They have nevertheless been threatened with high tariffs, and even more inexplicably, with withdrawal of the US from the security guarantees that have been given to Seoul and Tokyo by Washington. Such a situation must bring glee to Xi and his cohorts, who are, as a consequence, responding aggressively to the tariff threats of Trump on China.