Can India come up trumps as additional US tariffs kick in?

The visit of a US team to India for the sixth round of negotiations on tariffs has been postponed from August 25 to an unspecified later date, according to news reports.

Meanwhile, a 25% tariff on Indian exports is in effect from August 1. This 25% tariff, a slight adjustment from the originally threatened 26%, is accompanied by an additional 25% penalty on India for its purchases of crude oil and defence equipment from Russia, yielding a total tariff of 50%. The additional penalty is set to take effect on August 27, and will make India one of the most heavily taxed US trading partners.

The use of trade policy by countries to achieve domestic political and geostrategic goals is not new. However, what was once a more guarded and limited practice, often involving a subtle bending of rules, has evolved into a blatantly aggressive approach, with little to no attempt to operate within established multilateral norms. Tariffs have been weaponised.

This has been enabled by the US government’s stifling – since December 2019 – of the dispute settlement function of the World Trade Organization, the lifeblood of the multilateral system. With no disputes being settled, might becomes right, allowing powerful nations to impose their will without accountability.

A primary reason why countries such...

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