Western voices back India against Trump’s tariff war

The TOI correspondent from Washington: It is just not usually that India finds favour – or is the flavour – within the world commentariat. But amid rising indicators pointing to US President Donald Trump bringing a few generational – and adversarial – shift in American coverage in the direction of India, New Delhi is discovering broad assist from the Western intelligentsia in its battle to withstand the US bullying.Indications that the Trump dispensation is hell-bent on punishing India aggressively got here when US treasury secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday urged Europe to align with Washington and crank up tariffs on India. “We could use a more fulsome assist from our European partners… I don’t see them threatening tariffs on the Indians,” Bessent complained in a Fox News interview, cranking up stress on the EU, with which New Delhi is making an attempt to finalise a free commerce settlement.Although Bessent mentioned India and US would “eventually come together” due to their widespread democratic and market orientation, indications that ties have gone off the rails for now got here when he mentioned Trump is not going to budge on the tariff challenge if India doesn’t. Trump himself has remained quiet as his minions proceed to vilify India, taking a cue from their boss’ latest hostility in the direction of New Delhi. Separately, the MAGA dispensation additionally broadened its crackdown on journey, enterprise, and pupil visas – which impacts Indians disproportionately due to the amount of site visitors between the 2 international locations – alleging that India was the most important supply of misuse of visas.Trump’s torching of US-India ties is just not happening effectively with regional consultants who’ve seen bipartisan assist throughout administrations over previous 25 years for strengthening the connection.“The conflict in Ukraine is Putin’s war, not ‘Modi’s war’, and anyone who thinks this patently ridiculous formulation is going to provide leverage with New Delhi is beyond delusional. At this point, this is sabotage, pure and simple,” Evan Feigenbaum, a former state division official now with Carnegie Endowment, mentioned on Wednesday, referring to Navarro’s characterisation that the Russia-Ukraine battle is “Modi’s war”.“It is hard to escape the conclusion that some people on the US side are arsonists who are deliberately torching 25 years of work to build US-India relations,” Feigenbaum, amongst a slate of officers who had piloted the US-India nuclear deal, added.Qualified assist for India additionally got here from the Economist, which referred to as Trump’s wrecking of ties with India and his embrace of Pakistan “a giant own-goal for America’s interests that compounds its neglect of Nato in Europe”. Calling out American duplicity, the publication mentioned New Delhi shopping for Kremlin crude is “grubby”, however on condition that India does so by means of a price-cap scheme run by the West, that it sells refined petroleum merchandise to Europe, and that a lot of the world, together with China, additionally buys Russian oil, the surcharge makes it look as if India has been singled out for particular punishment. “For America to alienate India is a grave mistake. For India it is a moment of opportunity: a defining test of its claim to be a superpower-in-waiting,” the Economist mentioned, supporting New Delhi’s China outreach and its quest for brand spanking new markets, whereas encouraging reforms at residence.Several American analysts additionally unloaded on the Trump strategy saying the US is just capturing itself within the foot with its belligerence in the direction of India. “India will sell its exports no longer to the US but to rest of the Brics. What you are doing is, in a hothouse fashion, developing Brics into an ever-larger, more integrated and successful economic alternative to the West,” Richard Wolfe, a leftist economist and trenchant critic of MAGA insurance policies, warned in a podcast.