Is Trump's US-India trade deal even Trump-proof?
India Today
President Donald Trump announced that the US and India had agreed to a trade deal wherein tariffs on Indian exports to the US would drop from 50% to 18%. Is any agreement with the US even Trump-proof? Trump acts on whims and fancies, and countries like South Korea, the UK and Canada have seen that trade agreements don't mean much when it comes to sanctions.
The cover image of the story might remind you of Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Terminator. It is intended that way. US President Donald Trump has the capability and the record of behaving as The Trumpinator, wrecking deals and sabotaging agreements with friends and foes alike. An agreement, like the one Trump announced between India and the US, hardly prevents him from running amok. Several countries, including South Korea, the UK and Canada, which have been threatened with tariffs after trade deals with the US are a testament of that.
After a grinding trade dispute that lasted for 11 months and dragged bilateral relations to its lowest in nearly 20 years, Trump on Monday night (India time) spoke to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and announced that the India-US trade deal had been finalised. He declared that the US was slashing tariffs from 50% to 18% on all India-made goods being exported to America. The 50% tariffs were among the highest in the world.
In line with his usual style, President Trump loudly announced the deal via a post on Truth Social well ahead of formal press statements by either country. He stated that in return for the US slashing tariffs to 18% and dropping the 25% tariff for purchasing Russian oil, India would swap Russian oil purchases with Venezuelan and US oil and purchase $500 billion worth of American energy, agricultural and industrial products.
Now, like with most things in India, there were those who cheered the India-US trade deal, and others who expressed cynicism. The details of the deal are awaited. However, we will take the time to discuss if a trade deal with the US is even immune from Trump's frequent flip-flops.
That Trump flips at the drop of a hat is a well-known fact, and experts too are talking about it. Sushant Sareen, strategic expert and Senior Fellow at ORF, spoke about Trump's "whim and fancy", saying that is a "risk everyone has to take".
"In the end, it [the India-US trade deal] promises to be a win-win for both US and India. Unless, of course Trump again flips the switch on a whim and fancy. But that's a risk everyone has to take," said Sareen on X, summing up his argument on X.
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