US President Donald Trump is on a role after his election, which he believes that he has a recognition of thinking and policies at the entire gamal of American domestic and foreign affairs. Internal, democrats are in chaos after election loss. Along with the Supreme Court packed by candidates both House and Senate and Trump under the Republican Control, the system of check and balance in the US political system has weakened for that time.
Trump’s slogan of ‘Make America Great Again’ has an in-built contradiction. The slogan has domestic resonance, especially in the context of an economic prevention, for the reconstruction of the manufacturing base of the US, American companies invest more at home, produce more jobs, and so on. The slogan especially appeals to the middle class. However, the question is why he wonders that America, still not economic, technology and military power, not great?
Why is America not ‘great’ yet?
Trump’s lametones are that the rest of the world has taken advantage of American generosity and openness and it is no longer acceptable. He presents the victim’s spirit, while many non-Western countries have seen themselves as victims of American power over the years. The long list of US military interventions, uprooting governments, governance change policies, US dollar weapons and US control over global financial system, and using restrictions as a tool of foreign policy, forms the reality of American power. Therefore, in terms of ‘making America re -making great’, there are overtones of imperialism?
This “Great Again” ambition involves claiming Greenland for national security reasons to combat Russia’s Arctic domination, the Panama Canal to combat the control of its ports of China, renovate the Canadian sovereignty and more American, renovating the Canadian sovereignty as the Gulf of America, renaming the Gulf of the US.
The royal mindset leads from the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) and leads to inciting a blast on already weak multiplicity.
Fee as money
A major component of America is again using tariffs as a posture of power through muscle-flexing. Trump believes that the US has been the most incorrectly treated by other countries, and it includes friends and enemies equally, by increasing the high tariff walls against imports from the US, while exporting generously to its low tariff.
Trump has announced a 25% tariff on imports for Mexico and Canada, with which the US trade deficit is huge. He has not only treated the issue of tariffs as a business related to a business, but also as a point of pressure to force both Mexico and Canada to forces illegal immigration and drug fencing in the US. Trump has suspended the tariff twice on Mexico in view of the desire to cooperate. He has partially suspended some tariffs in the case of Canada. Trump is definitely violating the US-Maxico-Canada Free Trade Agreement by applying these tariffs, but this is a very little concern for them.
The US President had already imposed a 10% tariff on Chinese exports and recently announced an additional 10% duty. In the case of China, he has sought cooperation to control the flow of forever chemicals in Mexico and Canada for the production of Phantanelle, the largest source of China. China has especially retaliated with its own tariffs on American agricultural products.
Trump has not yet imposed tariffs on the export of the European Union to the US, although in the address of the Union of his state, he mentions the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Mexico and Canada, which were in the form of countries that misused tariffs against the US and now it was America’s turn to use tariffs against them. He said that India had charged a 100% tariff on US auto exports, that the average tariff of China was doubled on US products that the US had accused them, and that the average tariff of South Korea was four times more despite the fact that the US provided so much help in military and otherwise.
Faulty argument
Trump’s argument, however, is completely flawed. India’s tariff structure is not US-specific, although it can affect the export of some American products in the country. India’s tariffs are completely in line with the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO). India and the United States have trade disputes, and have been subject to the dispute settlement system of the World Trade Organization, until the US opposed its appellate body, blocking appointments and raising concerns about its judicial freedom.
The rules of the World Trade Organization are clearly allowed by developed countries for the “special and differential treatment” of developing countries, which gives them more flexibility to adapt to global trade rules based on their development level. It is worth remembering that to bring major reforms in the international trade system, the WTO launched the Doha Round of Dialogue in 2001, with the approach to develop developing countries’ development of developing countries with special and differential treatment for developing countries at its origin. Unfortunately, the Doha round finally collapsed in 2011 due to opposition from developed countries.
It is important to remember India’s situation during these unsuccessful dialogues, as it affects our interests, even we are facing Trump’s tariff attacks and business demands. India supported the Special Security Mechanism (SSM) to protect its farmers from import growth. India wanted the rich country to reduce its ‘trade-business’ agricultural subsidy significantly. It wanted a permanent solution to the issue of public food stockholding in developing countries for the purpose of food security. India also opposed the expansion of multilateral trade system by negotiating and implementing multilateral agreements on investment, competition policy, government procurement, etc.
A major inequality
Very simple and wrongly, Trump wants the similarity of treatment between the US and India in terms of trade, rejecting the concept of special and difference treatment. The $ 30.4 trillion economy and an income of $ 2,700 per capita income, the US and Indian economies are away from being equal, as compared to India’s approx -$ 4 trillion economy. This inequality does not take into account the US dollar status as the technical strength of the US, the capital of its multinational companies, the status of the US dollar as a global reserved currency, and the ability of the US and the ability to make the global financial system weapon, and so on.
Everyone said and did, now this issue is not one of the arguments, but to find a practical way for us. The US has now emerged as India’s largest economic partner in goods and services, the largest investor, the largest source of modern technology, and also a major defense partner. Indo-American relations are to be managed in this new context. Facted with a mercurial president who does not leave even American colleagues, India has had to show some loyalty to repeat the details of Trump as ‘Tariff King’, which is not giving us access to its market, and so on. Even during a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to Washington in 2025 February 2025, Trump was quite cruel in his comment about India’s tariff. He simplified the issue for a certain level of absurdity and said that the Indian tariff problem was an easy solution, as the US would implement the matching tariff on Indian exports under the principle of strict mutuality.
A simplified approach
Trump has already learned that he has directed his Commerce and Treasury Secretaries as well as the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to not only conduct a detailed study of the tariff structures of countries with which the US has a high trade deficit, but also non-tariff barriers, currency and regulatory issues, etc., which do business. Trump wants to neglect cases, disregarding the complexity of those issues. India and America, for example, are not the same export baskets in their business with each other. How will strict reciprocity be applied? If the average tariff on American exports in India is about 15% and is slightly higher than 3% on Indian exports to the US, then how will this mutuality be cured?
India had already done extensive homework on the issue of tariffs before Modi’s US visit, during which there was also a conversation with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutynik and USTR Jaimison Greer. India’s strategy is to address the issue through a multi-regional bilateral trade agreement with the US, the first installment of which will be concluded by this year’s autumn, when Trump is expected to visit India for a quad summit. This figure in a joint statement released on the occasion of Modi’s visit.
Waiting for April 2
As a quick follower, in view of Trump’s announcement that he would announce the implementation of tariffs on various countries on 2 April, India had already indicated America to address the issue of tariffs by announcing the US to reduce some duties on interest products. This joint statement was noted. India is ready to make the success of the talks on Tariff, given the bets involved, although agriculture will be a very sensitive issue for it. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal recently visited the US for talks with Lutynik and Greer, giving India’s readiness to India’s readiness to expand the Indo-American trade. Trump, always eager to claim success in “deal-making”, has already announced, based on his response to Goyal’s talks, that India will reduce tariffs on American goods.
Let’s see what Trump announced on 2 April. He has India in his mind, but given our advance moves and the variability of Trump, it can be hoped that he would not announce a tariff that can make the interaction on the envisaged multi-field trade agreement more complicated. No country likes to interact under Duresh.
(Kanwal Sibal was Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to Türkiye, Egypt, France and Russia, and was the Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
