'We can bring them closer to us by...': JPMorgan CEO mentions India in letter to Donald Trump amid 'trade wars'

As the world continues to linger from the impact of US President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariff announcements, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said that the States should work on developing closer ties with non-aligned nations like India and Brazil instead of asking them to align themselves with the US.

With this, Dimon is the first CEO of a major Wall Street bank to publicly address concerns around Trump's tariff policy as markets remain uncertain. 

"Deepening high-standard trade with key trading partners is good economics and great geopolitics. We don't need to ask many nonaligned nations, like India and Brazil, to align with us - but we can bring them closer to us by simply extending a friendly hand with trade and investment," Dimon said.

While the US has hiked tariffs on Indian imports to 26 per cent, 10 per cent tariffs have been imposed on products from Brazil. He said deepening high-standard trade with countries like India and Brazil was a possibility since the US lacks trade agreements with some of its closest allies. 

Furthermore, the JPMorgan Chase CEO advised the US to actively seek free and fair trade agreements with strong allies such as Australia, Japan, the UK, and the European Union.

He also sounded a word of caution that the recent tariffs announced by Trump may spark inflation and lead to recession in the States. 

"These significant and somewhat unprecedented forces cause us to remain very cautious," he said. Furthermore, he mentioned that even if tariffs don't lead to recession, it would slow down growth for sure. 

"The economy is facing considerable turbulence (including geopolitics), with the potential positives of tax reform and deregulation and the potential negatives of tariffs and "trade wars," ongoing sticky inflation, high fiscal deficits, and still rather high asset prices and volatility," Dimon explained. 

Meanwhile, Trump also announced an additional 50 per cent tariffs on China on Monday. The announcement came after Beijing retaliated with 34 per cent duties on US goods following his announcement last week. 

As the world reacted sharply to Trump's announcement, India went the diplomacy route. On Monday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar dialled US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In this conversation, both the leaders agreed to fast-track a bilateral trade deal between the two countries.