Trump Tariffs News Highlights: New Delhi ‘unalarmed’ after Trump doubles tariffs, says he can’t tell India not to trade with Russia

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The European Union (EU) struck a deal capping most tariffs at 15 per cent, up from 4.8%. The Italian Institute of International Political Studies projects the country’s GDP will dip 0.2 per cent, with agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and automotive sectors hit hardest.

Cristiano Fini of the Italian Confederation of Farmers described the deal as “a surrender,” than an agreement, reported BBC.

Switzerland faced a surprise 39% rate, the highest in Europe. President Karin Keller-Sutter returned from last-minute talks in Washington without securing the previously discussed 10 per cent cap, as per BBC.

Canada’s tariffs rose from 25% to 35%, though many goods remain exempt under an existing North American trade treaty. But higher raw material costs could still bite, according to BBC.

David Hope, vice president of Canadian aircraft component maintenance firm Hope Aero, told the BBC he expects a “blanket 10%” vendor price hike soon, as steel and aluminium, both under 50 per cent tariffs, grow more expensive. “Steel and aluminium are becoming more expensive in the US, so they’re going to pass those costs right along,” he told the BBC.

The imposition of an additional 25 per cent duty on India is a “national security issue” associated with New Delhi's “abject refusal to stop buying Russian oil”, White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro told AP.

Navarro, while talking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, said it is important to understand that the “rationale for the India tariffs is very different from the reciprocal tariffs”. “This was a pure national security issue associated with India's abject refusal to stop buying Russian oil,” he said, adding that “every American needs to understand the math of this because it is related to the trade situation”.

“You start with the fact that India is the ‘maharaja' of tariffs, it's the highest tariffs in the world charging on American products and it's got a high non-tariff barrier so we can't get our products in,” he said. The US sends a lot of dollars overseas to India to buy their products in an “unfair trade environment”, he claimed.

“India then uses American dollars to buy Russian oil. Russia then uses those American dollars that come from India to finance its armaments, to kill Ukrainians, and American taxpayers are then called upon to pay for the weapons that have to defend Ukraine against Russian armaments paid for by American dollars that came from India,” Navarro noted.

He said that it has “got to stop”. “That math does not work. The president understands the connection between economic security and national security so that was the bottom line there,” he added.

Navarro was asked why China, which buys more Russian oil than India does, has not been targeted the way Delhi has been with the doubling of its tariffs.

“As the boss says, let's see what happens. Keep in mind that we have over 50 per cent tariffs on China already…so we don't want to get to a point where we actually hurt ourselves,” he said. “The president certainly will be working with China on that issue,” he added. (AP)

Our expert columnist Udit Misra breaks down the newly-imposed additional tariff of 25 per cent on Indian imports to the US, as President Donald Trump made India the nation facing the highest tariffs from the country on Thursday.

Here's what Misra's analysis tells us:

"The move to slap additional tariffs seems to be driven not so much by a desire to punish India for importing energy from Russia (the formal reason), but rather as a negotiating tool to force India towards signing a trade deal that suits the US. The fact is that several other countries, such as China and the European Union, and the US continue to import goods and energy from Russia.

But more broadly, Trump has repeatedly designated India as one of the most protectionist countries in the world, or a country that had very high trade and non-trade barriers, which made it difficult for producers in other countries to sell their product in India.

According to Trump, it is because of such barriers to entry that India enjoys a trade surplus against the US ..."

Here are some of the lessons for India.

New Delhi is not alarmed or unduly perturbed; rather the government seems to be prepared to wait it out for the next few weeks or more — dealing with United States President Donald Trump’s increasing frustration by remaining calm after he doubled the tariffs on India on Thursday.

Simultaneously, New Delhi took an unequivocal call that Trump cannot tell India not to trade with Russia or distance itself from BRICS.

“These are India’s sovereign decisions. We will never sacrifice our sovereignty,” a source told The Indian Express.

Here's how India responded to the imposed tariffs.