Tharoor slams Trump aide Navarro over remarks, calls 50 pc tariffs 'unfair'

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday (September 23) took a swipe at US President Donald Trump’s trade advisor Peter Navarro for his tariff-related remarks on India. Tharoor said such language is uncalled for.

The Trump administration's 50 per cent tariff on India, and hike in H-1B visa fee to $100,000 per petition, have strained India-US relations.

Earlier, Navarro, White House Senior Advisor for Trade and Manufacturing, called India the ‘Maharaja of Tariffs’, the ‘Laundromat of Russia’. He even referred to the Ukraine conflict as 'Modi’s War'. It was not the first time Navarro was critical of India. A few weeks ago, he said, “Brahmins are profiteering at the expense of the Indian people”.

Also Read: US threats of tariffs against India and China failing: Russian Foreign Minister

'50 pc tariff is unfair'

In an interview with the ANI news agency, Tharoor called the 50 per cent tariff unfair. “The unfairness of this has created a very strong backlash in India, and the accompanying insults, both by Mr Trump’s own language in his statements and tweets and subsequently extremely offensive statements by his advisor, Mr Navarro, have gotten a backlash across the country,” Tharoor said.

Tharoor questioned why such language was being used when there had been no particular problem in India–US relations over the past three decades.

Also Read: Tharoor says India–US ties steady despite Trump tariffs, H-1B visa fee hike

“If there's no particular problem in a relationship of 30 years...why would you use this kind of language about India? This is not at all appreciated," he said.

What went wrong

When asked what went wrong between India and America, Tharoor listed several issues including America's massive deficits.

“Trump has this idea that tariffs are the magic instrument to solve a number of his problems. He feels that too many things that used to be manufactured in America are now being imported from abroad. He wants to make that more expensive so that the American manufacturers will start doing things more in America and employ American workers who are his MAGA constituency, as it's called,” he said.

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Tharoor also noted that Trump had imposed tariffs to bring down the deficit in America. “Trump believes that tariffs can be a useful source of revenue for his country. There is a massive deficit in America, colossal. It is the largest in the world by far. He hopes that by actually collecting, as he claims, billions of dollars every month in revenues by tariffs, he will be able to bring down his deficit,” Tharoor added.