On Trump tariffs, P Chidambaram suggestion to India: Reactive policy, evolve common approach

Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said India can’t be in uncertainty as US President Donald Trump’s tariff threat looms. He said the country must have alternative scenarios and a “reactive policy’.

“What if they take one step forward? What is our response? What if they take two steps backwards? What is our response?,” Chidambaram said in an interview to NDTV on Thursday.

The Congress MP said that India’s response need not be made public to the whole world, “but at least there must be a statement in Parliament, or there must be a consultation with opposition parties.”

“We are completely in the dark,” Chidambaram said. “In fact, my information is, most ministers are in the dark. Who is involved in making this reactive policy to America’s uncertain policy? I don’t know. Nobody seems to know,” he added.

His statement came as President Donald Trump promised to announce reciprocal tariffs on April 2, targeting countries with trade barriers on US products, which could include India and China.

India is eyeing tariff cuts on more than half of its US imports, looking to mitigate the impact of reciprocal tariffs, Reuters reported.

‘I am afraid’

Chidambaram said he’s “afraid” that Trump is not going to group all the countries together and impose universal tariffs.

“He’s giving a number for each country, what they have calculated, I’m told, calculated as the average weighted trade tariff. And he’s going to pick out one by one and force them to surrender,” Chidambaram said.

He added, “If he does that, and if he picks India, other countries will say, ‘we have not been picked up’. So unless you take action to forestall such picking out countries, and imposing tariffs, you’ll be left high and dry after the first attack.”

‘Evolve common approach’

Chidambaram said India should put its interest first, but many countries are finding “common ground” in acknowledging that “unilateral tariffs imposed by the US are unacceptable”.

He said, “…if you want to rewrite the tariffs of several countries, you must hold a discussion.”

Chidambaram said India is “a major agricultural exporter. We are a major textile exporter. We also export a lot of industrial goods,” Chidambaram said.”

“So we must band together with countries which are in the world market for agricultural exports, textile exports, and industrial goods exports, and evolve a common approach,” he said.

‘Economy will ruin if…’

P Chidambaram said on Thursday that if US President Donald Trump picks one country at a time and imposes tariffs, it will ruin the economy of that country.

“Suppose he [Trump] picks India, and he leaves other countries out. Suppose President Trump picks India and says, ‘these are the tariffs from goods exported from India’, we’ll be ruined. In a matter of three to six months, our economy will be ruined,” Chidambaram said in an interview to NDTV on Thursday.