Donald Trump’s Liberation day is here – it’s indeed one of the biggest days in American politics and a historic day for global trade, with the US president all set to announce a series of reciprocal tariffs. The levies, as Trump had insisted, is a response to high tariffs being charged from American companies, especially from nations like India, and China. Contrary to expert views, Trump claims this policy will free the United States from its reliance on foreign goods and is part of his “America First Trade Policy” aimed at bolstering US manufacturing and addressing perceived unfair trade practices.
US President Trump is making last-minute decisions on his plans to impose reciprocal tariffs and his team is reportedly still working out the details regarding the scale and coverage of the new levies. In a meeting on Tuesday, his team continued to hash out their options ahead of the Rose Garden event scheduled to begin as US markets close at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, people familiar with the ongoing discussions told Bloomberg.
How will the tariffs be decided?
US reciprocal tariffs will be levied not just based on tariffs imposed by partner countries, but also the VAT, exchange rate deviation from market value and non-tariff barriers.
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India and US – A love-hate relationship?
Trump has frequently labeled India as the “tariff king”, criticizing the nation for imposing high tariffs on US goods. He has highlighted instances such as India’s tariffs exceeding 100 per cent on U.S. auto imports, describing these measures as “very unfair and strong”. However, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump recently met in February post which the US President praised Modi’s leadership, calling him a “very smart man” and a “great friend”.
“India is one of the highest tariffing nations in the world… They’re very smart. He (PM Modi) is a very smart man and a great friend of mine. We had very good talks. I think it’s going to work out very well between India and our country. And I want to say you have a great prime minister,” he had said then.
Currently, US goods face a weighted average tariff of 7.7 per cent in India,
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