US protection and India: A global trade war cannot be good for anyone

India will not remain unscathed if things begin to hot up and there is retaliation against the US duties from China and the European Union

The irony that the country US President Donald Trump is likely to hurt the most with his tariffs on steel and aluminium is the US itself is now well established. America does not have the capacity to supply all its metal demand. It will take a few years if not decades to revive production in the scrap heaps that its long-abandoned metal factories have turned into in the manufacturing corridor appropriately termed the rust belt. The result: higher costs of production for sectors and reduced competitiveness that have steel as a key input like aerospace, construction, canned goods and pipelines.