Foreign Minister Jaishankar said on Monday that trade calculations worldwide are being overturned by “tariff volatility”, citing economic disruptions related to US President Donald Trump’s trading tariff policy. Jaishankar emphasizes the ‘strategic consequences’ of significant shifts in the geopolitical landscape, such as moving a third of the world manufacturing to a single region. “Consider the global landscape now and let us think about the intensity of the transformation and its implications. A third of the global manufacturing went to a single geography, with consequences for supply chains,” the news agency quoted Pti’s speech during the First Aravali Summit offered by the Jawaharlal Nehru University International Studies. “There is an increasing sentiment against globalizations in many societies. Trade calculations are overturned by tariff volatility,” he said, and he has an indication of Washington’s policy on rates. The comments of the Foreign Minister on the volatility volatility are coming after Trump increased rates on Indian goods to a significant 50 percent, which included an extra service of 25 percent for India’s import of Russian crude oil. “The global energy scenario has changed deeply that the US becomes a major fossil fuel exporter and China an important renewable one. There are competitive models about the utilization of data and the evolution of artificial intelligence, which stomps with each other,” Jaishankar said. Concerns about erosion in sovereignty also expressed concern about an ‘erosion in sovereignty’ because of what he described as ‘technical penetration and manipulation’. “World rules and regimes are revised and sometimes even discarded. Costs are no longer the defining criteria for economic transactions; ownership and security are just that,” he said. “Cumulatively see the world more competition and less compact. The needle has shifted to an intersection of interests and away from the promise of cooperation,” Jaishankar noted. Jaishankar said that although most countries are working on managing their issues or protecting their interests, India must develop strategies and continue to progress amid such an instability. “It is by no means a defensive attitude. We must protect our interests and yet constantly promote the global hierarchy. We need to put our exposures and commitments in hold and yet take risks,” he said. (With input from agencies.)
Eam Jaishankar warns at tariff volatility, flags rising anti-globalization times
