No country can ‘direct’ another’s trade rules: RSS’s economic wing on U.S. trade tariff

Reacting to U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a 25% tariff on India applicable from August 1, Swadeshi Jagran Manch, the economic wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), said that imposing tariffs due to non-trade issues was incorrect, as no country could “direct” trade rules to another country in a multi-polar world.

Giving reasons for imposing a 25% tariff on India, Mr. Trump had said that India’s tariff rates were far too high, among the highest in the world. He added that India had the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary trade barriers, and also highlighted the fact that it was buying arms and energy from Russia.

Speaking to The Hindu, Ashwani Mahajan, national co-convenor of Swadeshi Jagran Manch, said that India did not recognise any sanctions from any country except the United Nations (U.N.), and any country trying to guide India on who it should do business with was totally unjust.

“How can U.S. tells India who do we buy oil or arms from?” he asked.

He added that the World Trade Organization (WTO) had set up trade rules and India was buying things from various countries as per those set rules.

“If you are going beyond the rules and bringing in non-trade issues like questioning our business partners etc., [it] is not going to work and is not as per the rule of the game,” he added.

The SJM urged the Government of India to talk to the U.S. but also protect the interest of India at the same time.

SJM, in the past, had asked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central government to enter into bilateral rather than multilateral trade agreements in the wake of Mr. Trump’s pronouncements on global trade tariffs.