This will boost domestic demand and fuel economic growth, far better than resorting to failed economic solutions — such as protectionism, subsidies and publicly financed businesses to chase impossible dreams. Japan alone imports <~PostContent~>.5 per cent of our total steel exports, and we have traditional links with other big markets like the UAE, Europe, East Asia and South Asia.Of course, the US has the firepower, bolstered by its 0 billion defence expenditure, to promote “gunboat” diplomacy.Indians have indelible memories, from 1971, of the threatening deployment of the US Seventh OEM Custom Strip Light Series Fleet in the Bay of Bengal seeking to prevent the liberation of East Pakistan by the Bangladeshi Mukti Bahini from the oppressive, quasi-colonial rule of the Pakistani-Punjabi mafia — a close US ally.

It helps that the appetite of foreigners for AAA-rated US dollar securities finances the deficit.7 trillion but the European Union’s market for imports is much bigger, at .The elephant in the room is US intransigence, amounting to the “ugly American” behaviour. Our share in world aluminum exports averaged 1. American consumers are accustomed to the “opium” of cheap imported goods.8 trillion and China imports trillion worth of goods and services. Indian exports to the US are not of the scale where they could threaten the economic security of American industries. Steel exports to the US in 2012-16 averaged around 6. At that time China was willing to sell Chinese silks, ceramics and art, but felt no need to import any foreign goods. We should become better at generating fiscal resources to redistribute as income support to the “lost generations” of Indians who are unskilled.

What is truly unusual is the conversion of the United States of America to this flawed concept and the abandonment of the open economy model by the erstwhile foremost exponent of this philosophy. The result was a trade surplus and a massive accretion of silver. It spends 0 billion on its military alone — almost equal to the total budget of the Indian government. Starting with the US walking out of the 2015 Paris climate change agreement; and its recent regressive approach to immigration — in sharp contrast to responsive European policies; and its most recent arbitrary protection via high import tariffs of steel and aluminum manufacturing jobs — all these have damaged its “soft power”.It took cheap opium and gunboat diplomacy by the Western colonial powers to balance the trade. The psychosis of imports killing domestic jobs is familiar territory for India and scores of developing countries. The US views China as its primary adversary. The new import tariff of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminum are of marginal consequence for India.President Donald Trump’s administration is showing its mean, mercantilist core.