Republican Party candidate Donald Trump won the United States presidential election. Despite an intense campaign, the ruling party’s Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, fell behind in the election. During his last term, Trump had a good relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Apart from this, Trump is also a businessman who also has business in India. In such a situation, it is considered good for India that Trump becomes US President again. However, it is not that Trump has not taken decisions against India while in power.
When Trump was completing his first term as president, he took many such decisions which became a cause of trouble for India. These include decisions such as the removal of India’s GSP status in trade, the threat of sanctions on trade with Iran and changes to H1B visa rules. In such a situation, the question now arises that if Trump’s policies regarding all these things remain the same as in the previous term, then there may be a cause for concern for India.
While president, Trump had snatched away India’s special GSP status.
There is trade of many things between India and the United States. In such a situation, in 2019, India was surprised when the Donald Trump government removed it from the list of countries with special GSP status. The United States grants special status to GSP countries, i.e., the Generalized System of Preferences List compared to other countries in trade. Both countries benefit from this.
Especially for a country that gets special status, it is easy to do business. To promote the economic development of the countries included in this list of America, no tax is imposed on goods from there. This is why when India was excluded from this list, Trump’s decision was seen as a shock. In making this decision, the US government said that India does not allow the US to access its market fairly and adequately.
Trump’s H-1B visa policies have worried India
A large number of people from India go to the United States in search of work. In such a situation, since Trump won the American elections, the heartbeat of all those Indians who work there or are preparing to go and look for work have increased. Last time, when Trump became president of the United States, he made changes to the H-1B visa rules, so many people working in the United States had to bear the loss.
In fact, through the H-1B visa, companies established in the United States can hire foreign employees. 65,000 H-1B visas are issued annually, a large portion of which are granted to Indians. There are thousands of Indians working in the IT and finance sectors in the United States taking H-1B.
Donald Trump, while talking about America First, had taken many strict measures regarding the H-1B visa in his first term, which had an impact on many companies there and the Indians working in them. The Trump administration had tightened the eligibility criteria for the H-1B visa. The time needed to obtain a visa was also increased. Even the rejection rate of visa applications has increased significantly. The biggest impact of all these things was for the Indians who worked there in different sectors.
Trump administration warning on India-Iran trade relations
In 2016, when Trump became president of the United States for the first time, within months his stance toward Iran became tougher. The then-Donald Trump administration also imposed many major sanctions on Iran. In such a situation, India found it difficult to do business with Iran because the United States warned that if anyone overcomes sanctions and does business with Iran, action will also be taken against him.
At the time, the United States had warned countries doing business with Iran that they would face consequences. Trump had even said that if India continues doing business with Iran even after the deadline, the US will impose sanctions on the Indian petrochemical company.
Let us tell you that despite Western sanctions imposed after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, India imported oil from Iran worth more than 10 billion dollars every year. But after Trump became president, India was forced to compromise on its interests. And ultimately, India almost had to stop buying oil from Iran. While Iran and India have always had strong trade relations. In such a situation, the impact of the Trump administration’s increased strictness towards Iran was quite visible in India.
The tariff war between India and the United States began during the Trump presidency
The last time Donald Trump was in power, he had raised tariffs on goods exported from India to the United States. Its great impact was also observed in many Indian companies. In response to Trump’s decision, India also imposed tariffs on many items exported from the United States.
The tariff war between India and the United States began in 2018. At that time, the Trump administration had imposed a 25 percent tariff on steel imported into the United States and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum. Due to this decision of Trump, India’s steel exports fell by 46 percent, due to which the steel sector had to suffer huge losses.
India was very angry with Trump’s decision to increase tariffs. In response to this, India imposed heavy tariffs on 28 items exported from the United States to India in the year 2019. This dispute between the two countries will continue until the year 2023. Following which, the then President Joe Biden resolved the dispute and agreed to remove tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on steel and aluminum exports from India.
After Biden’s decision, India also removed tariffs on many things like pulses, nuts, almonds and apples. After which trade develops peacefully in both countries. Now Trump is back in government and at his rallies he has talked about increasing tariffs on goods from China and India. If Trump does this again, it could be a huge blow to India again.
