Trump’s Tariff Hike ‘Not Very Good’ For Indian Exports To US: Shashi Tharoor

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order imposing an additional 25 percent tariff on Indian imports, citing New Delhi's continued oil trade with Russia. This move raises the total tariff on Indian goods to 50 percent. The newly announced tariffs will take effect 21 days after the order is signed and will apply to all qualifying Indian imports to the U.S., except for consignments already en route and cleared before September 17.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. (Photo: IANS/Qamar Sibtain)

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday expressed concern over US President Donald Trump's decision to impose an additional 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods, taking the total tariff to 50 per cent. Tharoor warned that the move could hurt India's exports to the US market, making Indian goods less competitive than rivals such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

"I don't think that's particularly good news for us and that takes our total tariffs to 50 per cent then that's going to make our goods unaffordable to a lot of people in America and in particularly when you're looking at these percentages you have to compare them with the tariffs being levied on some of our competitors. I'm afraid that if you look at people like Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, even Bangladesh and Pakistan have lower tariffs than us, then ultimately people will not be buying goods from us in America if they can buy them cheaper elsewhere. So that's not very good for our exports to America," ANI quoted Tharoor as saying. 

Tharoor also stresses the importance of diversifying India's export markets amid rising US tariffs.

"This means we need to very seriously diversify to other countries and other markets that may be interested in what we have to offer.  We now have an FTA with the UK. We are talking to the EU. There are many countries in which hopefully we would be able to, but in the short term, it is definitely a blow," ANI quoted Tharoor as saying. 

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order imposing an additional 25 percent tariff on Indian imports, citing New Delhi's continued oil trade with Russia. This move raises the total tariff on Indian goods to 50 percent, further heightening trade tensions between the two nations.

The order was signed less than 12 hours before the original tariffs were scheduled to take effect.

The newly announced tariffs will take effect 21 days after the order is signed and will apply to all qualifying Indian imports to the U.S., except for consignments already en route and cleared before September 17.