Donald Trump’s tariff threat has been the talk of the town ever since his campaign days. Now that Trump has been sworn in as the 47th US President, governments across the world are on the lookout for ways to deal with the tariff threat.
The Indian government is considering options such as reducing tariffs, trade deals, and importing more goods from the US to negate the tariff threat if it becomes a reality, reported Bloomberg.
The government is evaluating options to counter any trade actions a new US administration may take and officials have drawn out multiple scenarios to address a potential widening of India’s $35.3 billion trade surplus with the US, as per sources cited in the report.
Among the possibilities are boosting purchases of US whiskey, steel, and oil, as well as lowering tariffs on products like bourbon and pecan nuts.
India was the US’s largest trading partner last financial year, data from India’s commerce ministry shows.
The government is planning to reduce duties on the goods that are imported to India which are of political importance to the Republican Party, said the report citing one of the sources.
The government is looking to avoid any direct confrontation with the US while also positioning itself to capitalise on any opportunities arising from the US-China trade war.
Bloomberg had earlier reported that the PM Modi-led government is planning to take back at least 18,000 illegal Indian immigrants from the US as a strategy to help pacify the Trump tariff threat.
India has always been open to the legitimate return of undocumented Indians to their country, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday, noting that New Delhi is still in the process of verifying those from the US who can be deported to India and the number of such individuals cannot be determined yet.
“As a government, we are obviously very much supportive of legal mobility because we do believe in a global workplace. We want Indian talent and Indian skills to have the maximum opportunity at the global level. At the same time, we are also very firmly opposed to illegal mobility and illegal migration,” Jaishankar told a group of Indian reporters in the US.
The minister was responding to a query on news reports that India is working with the Trump administration for the deportation of some 1,80,000 Indians in the US who are either undocumented, or have overstayed their visas.
Article source: indiatoday.in
