Global Trade

India-US trade in context: How it compares with the EU, China and others

India and the US have announced a trade deal to ease tariffs. Here's how the India-US trade relationship compares with India's major partners and the world's largest trade corridors

A world remade by rivalry: Each country must chart its own future

As the rules-based order fractures, geopolitics, minerals and energy rivalries are reshaping climate action, trade, and the future of global cooperation

Economic Survey 2025-26: External environment likely to remain volatile

For India, this could mean tougher competition for investment, slower growth in global trade volumes, and greater sensitivity of external flows to policy and geopolitical developments

The Economic Survey's global outlook: A world that has structurally changed

Economic Survey 2026 says India is better placed than many economies due to strong macro fundamentals, but warns these buffers will not fully insulate it from global volatility

Market signals: Global factors will continue to drive stock markets

Indian investors are in a difficult spot, given the uncertainty. In January to date, the benchmark Nifty saw a small correction of around 3.3 per cent after gaining 9.8 per cent in 2025

'A spirit of dialogue' at WEF, Davos, amid Trump's unilateralism

As donald trump completes one year of his second term, the world economic forum at davos opens amid rising tariffs, geopolitical fragmentation and a renewed push for global dialogue

Cloudy skies over US-EU trade deals: India prepares for headwinds

Amid political turmoil in the US and EU, India's hopes of quick trade deals face growing uncertainty, calling for realism and preparation for worst-case scenarios

Best of BS Opinion: Duopoly risks, urban woes and global disruptions

From Vodafone Idea's AGR moratorium and concerns over telecom duopoly to urban governance failures, global trade disruptions and India's openness to capital, here is today's opinion newsletter

Localising economy, well-being of majority key to resilient communities

Tariffs have been weaponised. They are now tools for reconfiguring global trade and foreign policy

2025: When multilateralism weakened, but global trade remained resilient

In 2025, multilateral trade rules weakened as the US raised tariffs, yet global trade stayed resilient, led by strong supply chains, China's leverage and India's adaptive policy response

The great trade balancing act: India weathers US tariffs, diversifies trade

One lesson India learnt the hard way in 2025 was the danger of excessive dependence on the US market

Why 2026 is poised to be another rocky year for global trade flows

Houthi attacks in the Red Sea have largely subsided since the Gaza peace plan took effect in October, making the old route more appealing

How 2025 turned global trade into a test of endurance, not just rules

The US is redefining global trade policy landscape

Exim matters: US reform proposals challenge WTO's basic principles

US proposals to reform the WTO question core principles like MFN and special treatment for developing nations, deepening divisions and raising doubts over the future of rules-based trade

Global trade getting weaponised through tariffs, says Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said global trade is increasingly "getting weaponised" through tariffs and other measures, and India will have to negotiate its way carefully. She said that the overall strength of the economy will give the country an added advantage. "Trade is getting weaponised through tariff, through many other measures and India will have to negotiate its way carefully in this, and not just take care of tariff but I think overall our economy strength is what is going to give us that additional advantage," Sitharaman said at Times Network's India Economic Conclave 2025. She said that globally it is now "very clear" that trade is not free and fair. "India can be lectured saying you (India) are very inward-looking, you are a tariff king and so on. But tariff has been weaponized," she said adding India's intention was never to weaponise tariffs. India, she said, only safeguarded its domestic industries against flooding which happens from a ...

Datanomics: Brics, SCO gain ground, but G7 holds the edge in GDP and trade

Putin questioned G7's economic dominance, as new data shows BRICS and SCO nations overtaking the bloc in global GDP share under purchasing power metrics

A new book reviews the global history of how capitalism took over the world

Sven Beckert's sweeping global history reframes capitalism as a centuries-long, often violent world-making force - rich in detail, ambitious in scope, and certain to provoke debate

Politics increasingly trumps economics in present era: Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said politics increasingly "trumps" economics in the present era. Jaishankar was addressing a gathering after being conferred Honorary Doctorate by IIM-Calcutta at its campus here. "This is an era where politics increasingly trumps economics... and that is not a pun, he said. "The United States, long the underwriter of the contemporary system, has set radically new terms of engagement. It is doing so by dealing with countries on a one-on-one basis," Jaishankar said. He also said that China has long played by its own rules, and is doing so even now. The external affairs minister said in the ensuing scenario, other nations are unclear whether attention should be on visible competition or the trade offs and understandings that punctuate it. "Faced with such pulls and pressures of globalisation, of fragmentation and of supply insecurity, the rest of the world responds by hedging against all contingencies," Jaishankar said. He said I

Global South should speak in one voice against trade challenges: Goyal

India on Wednesday called on developing and least developed nations to collectively work to address global trade challenges such as tariff barriers, unilateral environmental restrictions, and hurdles in the services sector. Addressing the 16th session of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said: "It is time for the Global South to speak with one voice on concerns that impact all of us". He said the world is currently volatile, marked by numerous uncertainties, challenges, and ambiguities in the global trading system. "We are living in a world marked by a profound trust deficit, whether in multilateral institutions, different international bodies, amongst nations and multiple critical challenges confront us almost on a daily basis. These challenges are multi-faceted. "It could be the erosion of confidence in the rules based trading system, a lot of non-market practices coming into play, tariff and non-tar

China put in oil markets may reshape global supply, trade dynamics

In recent years, Beijing has pressed state-owned producers to invest in harder-to-access fields to reduce dependence on imports