On a Friday, the Congress MP, Shashi Tharoor, severely repudiated a recent comment made by President Donald Trump, stating the Indian economy was dead. The controversial statement by Trump came after a decision to impose 25 per cent tariffs on India on the basis that the country has been buying weapons and oil in Russia and had put in place what he termed as an extremely high tariff on American products.
Upon being questioned on the characterisation by Trump, Tharoor was categorical in dismissing it, stating that it is quite obvious that everyone knows it. This reply followed within a very short time after the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had openly supported Trump on his statements and argued that the US President had simply made a statement of fact. Gandhi even carried this even further, telling the masses that the whole world is aware of what was happening to India in terms of its economic problems, and the only people who are in denial about this are the Prime Minister and Finance Minister.
Tharoor earlier raised the issue of Trump and his announcement of tariffs and said that this is a serious issue for Indian trade relations with the US. He observed that in conjunction with some other penalties, the 25 per cent duty could increase effective tariffs to 35-45 per cent. Even reports have hinted at the prospect of a 100 per cent penalty, which Tharoor threatened would kill our trade with America, a highly essential export market for India.
Pointing towards the bigger picture, Tharoor said that the current trade talks going on between the two countries could be one of the factors to de-escalate the situation. It is still a possibility that it may come down, he said, and failure to resolve the dispute may hard hit Indian exporters and aggravate prevailing trade imbalances.
The exchange highlights an increasingly lively debate within India political circles on the well-being of the economy and whether India would be going into a trade strategy in light of surging global protectionism. The government has not officially reacted to the statement by Trump that the economy is dead.
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