New Delhi: Donald Trump, who will take oath as the 46th President of USA on January 20, has announced plans to impose tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada.
Interestingly, India is not on his list, at least initially.
It may be recalled that Trump had labelled India a ‘very big (trade) abuser’ during his election campaign.
The tariffs are aimed to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US and as a leverage for trade negotiations, according to a report in The Indian Express.
India used to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) programme, which allowed tariff-free exports worth billions to the US. In 2019, however, India lost access to GSP.
The report cited a Bernstein Research note which states that under Trump’s second term as US President, there could only be “limited” benefits for India, and a negative impact on China.
China, along with Mexico and Canada, are the trading partners of US which are most exposed to Trump’s potential policy changes, with India ranked 8th, according to the report which cited Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
Trump will reportedly impose a 25% tariff on all goods for Mexico and Canada.
As for China, Trump is likely to impose an additional 10% tariff on Chinese imports until the Communist government curbs the smuggling of synthetic opioid fentanyl to the US through Mexico.
“I have had many talks with China about the massive amounts of drugs, in particular fentanyl, being sent into the United States – but to no avail. Representatives of China told me they would enforce their maximum penalty, including the death sentence, for any drug dealers caught doing this, but unfortunately, they never followed through,” the report quoted Trump as saying.
