‘World got addicted to US economy’: LSE President on why Trump’s tariffs are bad for Washington, good for others 

The tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on other countries, including India, would be bad for the US economy and good for the other countries in the long run, said London School of Economics & Political Science’s President & Vice Chancellor Larry Kramer. 

He added that he expected the impact of the tariffs to be higher than it currently is, and that other countries would eventually wean off the US economy. India is one of the highest tariffed countries by the US administration. Trump had imposed a 25 per cent tariff and added another 25 per cent as penalty for New Delhi’s continued purchase of Russian oil. 

“In some ways it is too soon to say what the impact is. I am surprised that the impact has not been greater than what it is but we will see. Right now, the big driver’s uncertainty because they keep changing the tariffs every other week and in different countries,” said Kramer. 

“At the end of the day, the world sort of got itself addicted to the US economy. If tariffs force a little bit of cold turkey, that's not necessarily a bad thing. In the long run, the effect of the tariffs is going to be more to drive trade out of the US, foster trade agreements among and between other countries, and rely on the US a lot less, which is frankly bad for the US and good for the rest of the world,” said the LSE President. 

The US continued to be India's largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25, with bilateral trade valued at $131.84 billion. India's exports to the US stood at $86.5 billion during this period. The US accounts for about 18 per cent of India's total goods exports, 6.22 per cent of imports, and 10.73 per cent of the country's total merchandise trade.

Meanwhile, a delegation led by Union Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goyal visited New York last week for meetings with the US side, to conclude the first tranche of a Bilateral Trade Agreement by October-November 2025.

The agreement seeks to more than double bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030 from the current $191 billion. A team of officials from the office of the US Trade Representative visited India on September 16 to discuss various aspects of the trade deal.