First response from Washington on India-EU deal: Trump’s commerce chief says ‘India comes out on high’ | Enterprise Information

“To start with, strategically, it’s necessary to grasp that as a result of President Trump has prioritised home manufacturing and basically began charging a price for different international locations to entry our market, these international locations are looking for different retailers for his or her overproduction. And so the EU is popping to India to attempt to discover a place. The EU is so trade-dependent. They want different retailers that they’ll’t preserve sending all their stuff to the US,” Greer stated.

This comes days after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent additionally criticised the EU for not exerting strain on India over Russian oil. He stated that it was the US tariffs that resulted in a collapse of Indian buy of Russian oil when “advantage signalling European allies” refused to do it as a result of they needed to signal a “massive commerce deal” with India.

Bessent stated that earlier than the Ukraine invasion, roughly 2-3% of oil that went into Indian refineries got here from Russia and that the comparable quantity went as much as 18-19%, serving to India make “big income”. “…however within the final act of irony and stupidity, guess who was shopping for the refined merchandise from the Indian refineries produced from Russian oil… the Europeans. They’re financing the struggle in opposition to themselves,” he stated.

Uncertainty in US commerce coverage has been a key driver of the India-EU commerce agreements. Each commerce companions have been underneath strain from Washington, because it stays the most important export marketplace for each New Delhi and Brussels. Whereas the Indian labour-intensive sectors have been going through 50% tariff, relations between the EU and US stay risky regardless of a commerce deal.

The US agreed to decrease tariffs on the EU to fifteen% final 12 months underneath a deal that continues to be unpopular in Europe attributable to restricted positive factors for Brussels and was largely seen as a strategic settlement somewhat than an financial settlement amid the continuing Ukraine struggle.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump threatened to dramatically elevate tariffs as much as 30% on the EU for opposing his plans to take over Greenland. The threats paused solely after the EU threatened retaliation, resulting in a contemporary framework settlement on Greenland.

Brussels and Washington are additionally clashing over tech rules. The US state division in December barred 5 Europeans, together with the EU’s former Inside Market Commissioner Thierry Breton and 4 members of digital marketing campaign teams, from getting into the US over “censorship” of tech platforms.

In the meantime, US tariffs on India have remained unchanged since August final 12 months. Exporters are actually nervous in regards to the everlasting lack of the market within the US as American patrons are now not inserting orders, and Indian rivals reminiscent of Vietnam and Bangladesh have begun benefiting. The tariff measure by the US has additionally impacted investments in India and has resulted in an outflow of international portfolio funding.

Looking for quick assist from the federal government, the attire exporters final week wrote to Vice President CP Radhakrishnan, citing worries of job losses on account of US tariffs.

The exporters stated that market diversification will not be a short-term choice as textile sourcing is embedded in long-term purchaser provide chains and creating alternate markets requires “2-3 years for purchaser onboarding, compliance audits, and quantity scaling”.

“Abrupt lack of the US market will result in everlasting buyer displacement and permit competitor nations with preferential entry to exchange India,” the Attire Export Promotion Council stated, whereas searching for interim protecting measures for textile exports pending treaty conclusion.