Former Ambassador of India to the US and BJP leader Taranjit Singh Sandhu said the decision by the US government’s move to impose reciprocal tariffs to match higher duties levied by America’s trading partners was not aimed specifically at India but was part of a broader approach to address trade imbalances with multiple countries.
Sandhu highlighted discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump during PM Modi’s just-concluded visit to the US.
According to Sandhu, the primary topic of conversation was Mission 500, the initiative to increase bilateral trade to USD 500 billion by 2030.
“If you look at Prime Minister Modi’s tweet before the visit, trade was to be one of the important issues and it was discussed in the meeting and in the trade, they have spoken about a very clear new goal which is Mission 500 that is increasing the bilateral trade to USD 500 billion by 2030 and also start the negotiations on a bilateral trade agreement by fall of 2025 and there is also written by both sides to look into bilateral trade barriers and market access,” Sandhu told ANI.
He also pointed out that Trump’s tariff policies have impacted other countries as well, including several of the US’s allies, saying, “I think what you have said is very significant, but let us see this in perspective. Firstly, President Trump believes that tariffs are a method by which economic balance can be done. It’s his perception, and he has spoken about it earlier, too. Now we also need to see the Indian part in perspective. So it involved about USD 40 billion dollars. India is not one of the largest countries there having the imbalance. There are other countries and those countries are also many of them are allies of United States. So it is not that this was directed towards India, but what you have pointed out is what they have decided as far as trade and investment is concerned.”
Sandhu further explained that during Trump’s first term, India was a key trade partner of the US, following which he expressed hope that this relationship would continue under the current administration.
“Remember that Indian companies also have an issue with market access to United States and supply chain. And on supply chain, I would like to mention that it was in Trump 1.0, during the COVID time, that President Trump had very strongly pushed for secure supply chains and India had emerged as an important partner in that and that has continued and it will continue this time too. And finally, in that statement, you will see that there is recognition of the role which the Indian companies are playing in United States that they are investing almost USD 8 billion and creating high quality jobs in United States,” the former Ambassador added.
Ahead of his meeting with PM Modi, Trump on Februeary 13 announced reciprocal tarriffs on countries, including India.
“On trade, I have decided that for the purpose of fairness, I’ll charge reciprocal tariffs – meaning, whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them – no more, no less. They charge us with tax and tariffs, it’s very simple we will charge them with exact tax and tariffs,” Trump said.
He signed the memo “Fair and Reciprocal Plan” and told reporters in the Oval office “They charge us a tax or tariff and we charge them the exact same,”
Regarding India, Trump noted that discussions during his first term failed to yield concessions on tariff reductions. As a result, the US has decided to adopt a direct reciprocal approach.
“And so we are being reciprocal with India. Whatever India charges, we charge them. So, frankly, it no longer matters to us that much, what they charge. I had discussions with India in the first term about the fact that their tariffs were very high, and I was unable to get a concession,” he said.
In his media briefing Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said, “We’ve been hearing about tariffs for quite some time and in today’s discussion between the two sides, this issue came up quite normally in the talks between the two leaders.”
“They both had their perspectives, but what’s more remarkable is or what’s worth looking at is the fact that we have a way forward on this issue in terms of the undertaking to discuss or start discussions on a bilateral trading agreement, and this may actually be a very good opportunity to Take forward something and conclude something which was actually foreseen in the first Trump administration” Misri said.
The foreign secretary Misri in his briefing mentioning India’s trade in energy-related trade, he said last year India purchased about USD 15 billion in US energy output and there is a good chance that this figure will go up to as much as USD 25 billion in the near future.
He said, “So therefore we are a significant producer and today’s discussions did focus considerably on the possibility of more energy purchases, and it is entirely possible that these increased energy purchases will contribute to impacting the deficit between the two countries as well.”
The MEA official said that PM Modi and President Trump had also announced plans to negotiate the first tranche of a mutually beneficial multi-sector bilateral trade agreement by the fall of 2025 towards advancing this process.
(With inputs from ANI)
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