DEALING WITH THE TRUMP SHOCKER

As Trump hands out a punitive 50 per cent tariff on India, the government crafts a measured response while protecting Indian interests

- RAJ CHENGAPPA

NOT SINCE BILL CLINTON IN 1998, WHEN he threatened to “come down like a ton of bricks” after India conducted its nuclear tests, has a serving US president spoken so derogatorily about India as Donald Trump did in a series of posts on Truth Social recently.

On July 30, Trump accused India of having “the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary Trade Barriers for any Country” and then went on to add that India is “Russia's largest buyer of energy, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia TO STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE - ALL THINGS NOT GOOD!” Trump then slammed India with a tariff of 25 per cent—to kick in on August 7—and warned that he would be imposing an additional penalty if India continued to buy oil from Russia. A day later, in yet another post on social media, Trump said he did not care if India and Russia “take their dead economies down together”. On August 6, Trump went ahead and imposed an additional 25 per cent ad valorem duty, to apply within 21 days, pushing the average duty on Indian exports to the US to 50 per cent. Along with Brazil, India now has the highest trade tariffs imposed on it, with even China, whom Trump regards as his archrival, facing tariffs of only up to 30 per cent.