Govt Must keep National Interests Foremost While formulating Strategy on US Tariffs: Cong

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma on Saturday termed the imposition of tariffs by the US "unfortunate" and "unilateral" and asked the government to take various political parties and stakeholders into confidence saying national interests should be kept foremost while formulating its strategy.

Addressing a press conference here, the former Union minister urged the government to hold consultations with all stakeholders while protecting their interests and also constitute a task force of experts to evolve steps to deal with the issue and monitor the trade.

"What Donald Trump has done is unfortunate and is a big blow to world trade," he noted.

"It is a matter of grave concern. The unilateral imposition of high tariffs by US President Trump has created massive disruption. This is unprecedented. It threatens to create a major upheaval in all economics, big or small, whether rich and developed countries or the developing and poor countries," Sharma said.

He said Trump's decision has also "turned on its head" the multilateral trade system and delivered a grave blow to the world economy, trade and the WTO, the only organisation which has responsibility to conduct a rule-based global trade.

Noting that there cannot be trade without a rule based system, he alleged what Trump has done is a violation of all international agreements, rules and principles.

"The government should ensure that national interests are kept foremost while taking any decision in reaction to the tariff imposition and it should be taken while protecting the interests of farmers and stakeholders," Sharma noted.

Sharma said the government should take the country into confidence and there should be consensus and no such decision be taken in haste so that the country should not suffer the consequences of it.

Noting that the government should have discussed the issue in Parliament when it was in session, he said it should now speak to all political parties and take them in confidence.

Sharma also said that so far the services sector is not talked about and India should not accept any trade agreement keeping services sector in focus, as the country does not have much share in world trade.

If services are not included then it will not be in the interest of the country, he stressed.

He also said that it would have been better if the government did not give any concessions beforehand and decisions should not be one-sided but mutual.

Sharma also claimed that one must keep in mind that Trump does not have the authority of the Senate on trade agreements and thus he cannot give any concessions and can impose tariffs.

"The government of India should talk to all stakeholders, be it businessmen, farmers and agri sector including poultry and dairy, textile sector.

"We demand that the government constitutes a national task force with people having experience in international trade," he said, adding that they should also have a monitoring mechanism on which side the trade is moving.

He said the world is multi-polar and not unipolar and that is why the US decision will not do any good to any country and it will hurt American interests too.

To respond to the US decision, Sharma said it has to be a calibrated approach.

"We hope the government will put in place a strategy. But what will be the strategy, there should be a national consensus on it. After 75 years, we are seeing that the entire global trade system has been wrecked. Therefore, the leaders of all political parties should be taken into confidence by the government on its strategy. There should be stakeholders negotiations too," he said.

The Congress leader said the stakeholders must know what we are going to discuss, before any concessions are going to be made which may hurt the Indian economy, agriculture and industry in the long term.

"India must prioritise the conclusion of ongoing negotiations for free trade agreements with the EU, UK. We should now look seriously on how to re-energise the entire continent of Africa, Latin America and the countries of the Gulf," he said.