The head of a top India-focused US trade advocacy and strategy group said on Tuesday that China is trying to improve ties with India in an effort to ease pressure from the incoming Trump administration.
During his presidential election campaign, Trump proposed a 60 percent tariff on goods from China and up to a 20 percent tariff on every other American import.
Mukesh Aghi, president of the US-India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF), said, “So, we are seeing the initial impact of the Trump administration coming in, which has put pressure on China to ease its dealings with India. So the border patrol But it has been agreed upon. Direct flights have been agreed upon.”
He further said, “They will also issue more visas to the Chinese coming to India. You see that Trump’s arrival will have a positive impact on India-China relations.”
Last month, India had announced that it had reached an agreement with China on patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, a breakthrough in ending the more than four-year-long military standoff.
“The calculation on the Chinese side was that Trump was coming. Relations with the US would become strained. So, why have multiple fronts of this strained relationship? ‘Let’s at least ease the partnership or potential relationship with India.’ ,” Aghi told PTI in an interview.
He said India can play an important role in Trump’s “America First” policy by offering space for secure sourcing, while the new administration plans to shift manufacturing away from China and create jobs in the US.
“The efforts by the Trump administration to impose tariffs so that it can pressure companies to move manufacturing back to the US, it’s not going to happen overnight. It took almost 40 years for manufacturing to move out of the US. The challenge we face is We don’t have enough skills. We don’t have enough manpower to help with that approach, so the transition will take time.”
“This is where India can play an important role by saying, ‘Yes, we will help you move manufacturing back to the US, but we will also manufacture many of these components in India’ and make them part of the global supply chain. It helps you because you are not geopolitically dependent on a friend, but I think the concept of sourcing is safer than outsourcing or friend-shoring. is becoming more important and stronger,” the USISPF boss said.
“You will see India’s role becoming more important in building America first. At the same time, self-reliant India within that supply chain also becomes very important,” he said.
Aghi also claimed that corporate America was “very happy” with the election results.
“They think Trump understands how challenging it is to run and grow a business. Hopefully he will cut taxes for corporations, which will help them become more profitable and grow businesses. The corporate community welcomes the new administration , which is the Trump administration,” he said.
“The market has gone up. Interestingly, the dollar has strengthened. This reflects confidence in the incoming administration by corporate America,” Aghi said.
Responding to a question on the impact of the elections on India-US relations, the business leader said it does not just depend on the administration.
He said, “It depends on the geopolitical alignment between the two countries. It depends on economics. It depends on trade. It depends on people-to-people. When you look at geopolitics, the India-U.S. Are in alliance, especially with China.” ,
“We are seeing tremendous activities between the two countries under the umbrella of the Quad with Japan and Australia. On the trade side, you have USD 200 billion trade, which is expected to grow. On the technology side, we are Seeing that Indians are manufacturing a lot of American technology in India itself, global competence centers are generating a substantial amount of IP (intellectual property) for American companies.
Aghi also said that the 50 million Indian-Americans generated about 6 percent of America’s GDP, even though they constituted only 1 percent of the population.
He said, “The Trump administration will look at how you create jobs in America. This is where India has to play a very strong role by saying, ‘Yes, we will support the US plus one strategy.’ Will it interfere with India’s strategy?” Self-reliant India? No. I think the two can co-exist and support each other for mutual success.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
