The new high fees came into effect at midnight New York time, at 06 on Wednesday Swedish time. Experts have described them as a veritable trade embargo, and in India, the indignation is great.
The exact effects remain to be seen, however. Some important goods are exempt, including medicines and the phones, for example, Apple manufactures in India. But analysts mean that the US President Donald Trump is now chasing India straight into the arms of the dictatorship China. And that the unpredictability of the US measures consumes trust.
”Threatens to erase”
One of the most worrying things about the Trump tariffs is how India went from a promising candidate for a quick trade agreement to a country that is faced with some of the highest tariffs introduced against any trading partner, says Wendy Cutler at the think tank Asia Society Policy Institute to the news agency AFP.
The new tariffs are a strategic shock that threatens to erase India's long-standing presence in the US, says Ajay Srivastava at the think tank Global Trade Research Initiative to the news agency AP.
Even the EU feeds the war chest
Initially, India received tariffs of 25 percent, as part of the new tariff regime Trump introduced against large parts of the world. But recently, he signed a presidential order to double the fee to 50 percent, citing that India buys so much oil from the warring Russia.
India has condemned this as deeply unfair, and points out, among other things, that China buys even more oil from Russia, and that even, for example, the EU feeds Moscow's war chest with increasingly large purchases of fossil gas.
No light in the trade crisis is seen right now, however. A delegation from the US that was to go to Delhi to negotiate cancelled their trip the other day.
