NEW DELHI: US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Saturday imposing broad tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada, and China, triggering swift retaliation from North American neighbours. Notably, India was exempt from the order despite Trump’s frequent characterization of the country as a “tariff king.”While India has been navigating trade negotiations with what a source described as a “confidently positive” approach, it contributes only 3.2 percent to America’s overall trade deficit, ranking ninth among the highest contributors. In contrast, China, Mexico, and Canada remain the top contributors, with China accounting for 30.2 per cent of the deficit, followed by Mexico at 19 per cent and Canada at 14 per cent, according to the Research and Information System (RIS).Trump justified the tariffs by citing large trade imbalances and the role of certain nations in facilitating the entry of fentanyl into the US. “We have big deficits with all three of them. In one case, they’re sending massive amounts of fentanyl, killing hundreds of thousands of people a year. And in the other two cases, they’re making it possible for this poison to get in. We have about a $200 billion deficit with Canada and a $250 billion trade deficit with Mexico,” Trump said during a press briefing.
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