5 June 2025

Can India Finally Grab Its Trade Moment?

Sanjay Kathuria

On April 2, President Donald Trump announced sweeping and unprecedented tariffs on U.S. trading partners, intensifying global economic uncertainty and triggering a sharp stock market decline in the United States and elsewhere. At the same time, China continues to face headwinds from the global “China+1” strategy, as countries seek to diversify their supply chains and reduce dependence on Chinese manufacturing—a concern that has grown with the escalation of U.S.-China trade tensions. India should seize this moment to set a bold new ambition: to become a more reliable trading partner to the world than either China or the United States. Its size and long-term potential lend credibility to such a vision. Realizing it, though, will require a fundamental rethinking and overhaul of India’s trade policy approach.

Trump has frequently called out India as the world’s “tariff king,” and this is not far from the truth. India is a tariff outlier. If the renewed debate on protectionism helps India understand that its trade policies are self-defeating, Trump might end up doing India, and the world, a huge favor.

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