There’s “no question” India wants to cut its excessive tariffs so as to compete with extra business-friendly rivals in Southeast Asia if it desires to win from Donald Trump’s looming commerce struggle with China, the outgoing US ambassador to India mentioned.
While Indian producers stand to profit if Trump’s tariffs drive US companies to scale back commerce with China, India wants to do rather more to enhance its home enterprise setting to lure funding, Ambassador Eric Garcetti mentioned in an interview in New Delhi on Thursday.
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Reducing excessive tariffs is a key step, he mentioned.
“American companies don’t need India,” he mentioned Thursday. “There’s a great market here if they want to be in the marketplace, but for their international exports, they don’t have to be in India. It’s oftentimes easier in Southeast Asia and Mexico.”
Trump returns to workplace subsequent week with threats to slap common tariffs on imports into the US, together with no less than 60% duties on Chinese items. Even although India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has heat private ties with Trump, the US president-elect has nonetheless warned the South Asian nation of reciprocal motion if it retains levies on American items excessive.
The US has strengthened commerce and diplomatic hyperlinks with New Delhi lately beneath each Republican and Democratic administrations, because it sees India as a regional bulwark towards a extra assertive China.
‘Indispensable’ India
Despite Trump’s complaints about India’s commerce limitations, Garcetti mentioned he expects the US and India to proceed to draw nearer, noting that key figures similar to incoming National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio have lengthy been proponents of friendlier ties with New Delhi.
“You couldn’t get two more India-focused friends and China hawks,” the ambassador mentioned. “A generation ago, the relationship we now have between the US and India would have been unimaginable, and I think a generation from now it’s going to be seen globally as absolutely indispensable.”
Garcetti, a former mayor of Los Angeles, wraps up an virtually two-year stint as ambassador to India with Trump’s arrival within the White House subsequent week. The president-elect has but to announce his alternative for a successor in New Delhi.
Under President Joe Biden, the US has pushed for better cooperation in protection, know-how sharing and enterprise funding in India, with corporations similar to Apple Inc. boosting manufacturing within the nation as they search to diversify away from China. Others like chipmaker Micron Technology Inc. have additionally pledged elevated funding.
Despite some wins beneath Modi’s signature “Make In India” marketing campaign, the share of producing within the nation’s gross home product has slumped over the past decade. India faces stiff competitors for international funding from Asian rivals similar to Vietnam, which corporations say present a extra business-friendly setting.
Murder plot
A sticking level within the US-India relationship has been allegations made by US prosecutors in 2023 that an Indian authorities agent was concerned in a foiled plot to assassinate a Sikh activist in America. India’s authorities arrange a committee to examine the claims, and earlier this week the panel beneficial authorized motion towards an unidentified particular person.
Garcetti mentioned the committee’s advice was “a welcome first step,” however mentioned it shouldn’t be “the end destination” of New Delhi’s investigation.
“There needs to be systemic reform and there needs to be accountability,” he mentioned. “Countries who are friends” can’t take “unlawful actions against others, let alone a murder for hire.”
