'Only India can play the role of next China': Fareed Zakaria slams Trump's 50% tariffs

Foreign affairs commentator Fareed Zakaria has criticised the U.S. for imposing a 50% tariff on Indian goods, describing it as a decision that "makes no sense." Speaking on the Prof G Conversations podcast, Zakaria expressed his bewilderment, saying, "I still haven't heard a coherent reason why this has happened. And why does India have the highest tariffs in the world? It makes no sense." 

Zakaria also reflected on the historical shift in U.S.-India relations. "A year ago, India was usually among the top three most pro-American countries in the world," he said. "It was up there with Poland, Israel, and others, despite its Cold War alignment with the Soviet Union." He noted that Indians have always had a strong natural affinity toward America, from admiration for its culture to the prestige of American degrees.

"(But) it's flipped. It has flipped because of a real sense that Trump is trying systematically and consciously to screw India. India has the highest tariffs in the world now laid on it," Zakaria said. "And then Trump went out of his way to favor Pakistan. So there's a kind of weird element to it all."

Zakaria further pointed to the irony of the situation, as the U.S. has worked for decades to draw India closer into its sphere of influence. "At the end of the Cold War, the United States started to woo India to come and become part of the American sphere of influence," he explained, highlighting the key moments in U.S. foreign policy-Clinton’s state visit, Bush’s recognition of India as a nuclear power, and Obama’s pivot to Asia - all of which strengthened the relationship.

Yet, Trump's policies have undone much of that work, he claimed. "Trump in Trump 1.0...he continues that process and again somewhat inexplicably he's turned on India and undone four administrations' work...25-year project of bringing India closer to the United States."

Despite this, Zakaria underlined India's importance in the future of global manufacturing. "There is only one country in the world that has the scale to replace China," he stated. "If you want to make massive amounts of consumer electronics or iPhones, only India has the scale to do that. If you want to make massive amounts of pharmaceuticals, only India has the ability to do that." 

"For the next pandemic, you don't want to be reliant on China because many of these things are low-margin goods where you need to make them at a massive scale. That's not going to be done in Texas or California. That's not even going to be done in Europe. Only India can play the role of the next China with regard to that kind of manufacturing." 

In conclusion, Zakaria lamented the lack of clarity from U.S. policymakers, likening it to a situation where "the emperor was in a bad mood that day."