Congress MP Shashi Tharoor pitched for retaliatory tariffs against the US on Thursday after President Donald Trump imposed an additional 25% levy on India. The Thiruvananthapuram lawmaker also lashed out at the other country for “double standards” in imposing tariffs — citing Chinese imports from Russia to underscore his point. Tharoor opined that the latest tranche of tariffs would make “our goods unaffordable to a lot of people in America.”
‘Why should we stop at a 17% tariff?’
“If they do this, we should also impose a 50% tariff on American exports… It is not that any country can threaten us like this…Our average tariffs on American goods are 17%. Why should we stop at 17%? We should also raise it to 50%. We need to ask them, do they not value our relationship? If India doesn’t matter to them, they should also not matter to us,” Tharoor told reporters.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP also cautioned that the newly announced tariffs would “definitely have an impact” once they took effect in late August. He had also stressed the need to “very seriously diversify to other countries and other markets” soon after the announcement was made on Wednesday evening. Tharoor noted that the 50% tariff was significantly higher than those faced by other countries — making Americans inclined to buy from nations offering more affordable rates.
“It will definitely have an impact because we have a trade of $90 billion with them, and if everything becomes 50% more expensive, buyers will also think why should they buy Indian things?” he asked.
‘Hidden message from Washington?
The Congress leader also noted that the tariffs may be ‘hiding’ a message from Washington — especially considering the different treatment meted out to China.
“The additional 25% tariff has been added on the pretext that we are buying oil, petroleum products from Russia. However, China is purchasing almost double… and they have been given 90 days, while India has been given just three weeks. There seems to be some other hidden message from Washington,” he added.