India joins global anti trump front

India joins global anti trump front

Retaliatory tariffs part of global response.

India’s plan to raise additional import duty, worth $240 million, on a variety of imports from the US in retaliation against US tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium imposed on national security grounds. The retaliatory tariffs on 30 products—motorcycles with engine capacity over 800cc, certain iron and steel goods, lentils, almonds, apple—show that India has joined the anti-US trade coalition that is gathering force to resist unilateralism in trade. New Delhi’s action would be noticed, principally because it comes alongside retaliatory tariffs on US imports by China, the European Union and the US’s North American Free Trade Agreement partners, Canada and Mexico. However, the amount ($240 million) that India expects to collect is tiny in relation to US exports of over $1.5 trillion.

China’s additional tariffs total $50 billion. It will levy a 25% additional tariff on 545 product categories including many farm products—soybeans, corn and wheat along with beef, pork and poultry, plus automobiles. The reprisal follows US President Donald Trump’s decision to slap a 25% tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. China has a trade surplus of about $376 billion with the US. So, the products that China had pledged to buy more of will now be slapped with higher import duties instead. It could expand the scope of punitive tariffs to coal, crude oil, gasoline and medical equipment. Punitive levies on US soyabean and pork will hurt states that had backed Trump in 2016.

The EU has proposed additional tariffs on US imports worth a modest $4.5 billion. It targets products—such as bourbon and orange juice—from politically sensitive Republican-run states. Mexico too had pork in its cross-chairs. The US has stalled appointment of judges to the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism and has adopted protection on grounds of national security. The rest of the world has to come together to defend the rules-based world trading system, and that means standing up to US bullying tactics and explicitly channeling disputes through the World Trade Organization.