WEF Davos 2026: ‘Economy as a whole has hardly felt it,’ says Nadir Godrej says about Trump’s 50% tariffs

While several businesses have been impacted by US tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, the economy has not felt the hit as much, said Nadir Godrej, Chairperson of Godrej Industries Group. Speaking to Business Today, Godrej said that the tariffs could make the US lose a lot of its friends. 

“Although several businesses have been affected by the tariffs in India, the economy, as a whole, has hardly felt it. And whatever we have lost in exports to the US, has largely been made up with exports to other countries,” he said. 

“The net effect has been that lots of countries that were not very close to each other have been thrown closer together, including India and China, and I'm pretty sure that India will overcome this,” said Godrej. “This will be a problem for other parts of the world and it could also mean that America loses a lot of friends because we don't know who's left as America's friend now,” he added. 

Godrej added that companies that have committed massive amounts of investments to India in the recent past might be ignoring some of the geopolitics noise. “Tariffs may not be hurting other economies as much as would be expected, but undoubtedly the tariffs are likely to hurt the US economy,” he said. 

Meanwhile, US Senator Lindsey Graham has put a bill in front of the Senate to “punish” those who continue to buy Russian oil with a 500 per cent tariff. This would include India and China. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent identified Europe, India and China as buyers of Russian oil, during a conversation at the World Economic Forum 2026 in Davos. He said Europe is still buying Russian oil four years after the Russia-Ukraine war started, said Bessent, adding that India “has geared down and has stopped buying Russian oil”. He said China is also a very large buyer of Russian oil, Iranian oil, and Venezuelan oil.