'Nothing is just trade, it's personal', says EAM Jaishankar on trade war

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said the world is heading towards a period of sharp competition and contestation, where the planning is going to be much harder for different countries

Amid the raging tariff war that has put world trade in a Catch-22 situation, India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday said, “Nothing is only trade anymore. Nothing is purely business anymore. Everything is also personal...” Jaishankar said this describing India’s position amid the US and China trade war, at the Carnegie India Global Technology Summit in New Delhi.

 

Speaking on the US-China rivalry and India’s position within it, Jaishankar said, “We’ve actually seen both extremes.”

 

“Our experiences (with respect to US-China relations) are very different. We've actually seen both extremes. For the first few decades after independence- there was very sharp contestation between the US and China, and we got caught in the middle of it. And then, even worse, a deep collaboration between the US and China and being at the wrong end of it,” Jaishankar said.

 

 

Jaishankar further said that the world is heading towards a period of sharp competition and contestation, where the planning is going to be much harder for different countries.

 

“...in the past, we could insulate sectors, saying, you know, this doesn’t matter; this is only trade, it’s not political, it’s not defence, it’s not sensitive. I think what is our definition of what is sensitive has expanded. Nothing is only trade anymore. Nothing is purely business anymore. Everything is also personal,” he said.

 

US-China trade war

US President Donald Trump on Thursday (IST), after announcing a pause on tariffs on several trading partners for 90 days, ended up slapping 125 per cent additional tariffs on China, totalling it to 145 per cent. China, however, responded with retaliatory tariffs saying that it will ‘fight to the end’. 

China has also been trying to rally support from other nations against Trump’s tariffs.

 

 

An ‘urgency’ for US-India trade deal 

Speaking about the much anticipated bilateral trade deal with the US, Jaishankar said that India has geared up for a “very high degree of urgency”. 

“This time around, we are certainly geared up for a very high degree of urgency. We see a window here and we want to seize that window. Our trade teams are really charged up. This is normally a complaint which in the past was made about us, that we are the guys slowing it down. Today, it is the other way around. We are trying to communicate that urgency on all three accounts,” he said.