NewsBytes

Tariff war intensifies

Tribune News Service

Updated At : 08:02 PM Apr 03, 2025 IST

President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House, in Washington.

Trump hits India with steep 27 pc tariffs

President Donald Trump slapped universal duties on all countries exporting goods to the US and additional steep levies on countries like India, potentially impacting sales of products from shrimp to steel in the world's biggest economy.

The US imposed a steep 27 per cent tariff on all goods, barring pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, energy and certain minerals not available in the United States, that are imported from India, calling the country the "worst offenders" of unfair trade practices.

Export of products such as shrimp, carpet, medical devices and gold jewelery to the US will be impacted. On the other hand, exports of electronics, textiles, and pharma will get an edge over its competitor countries.

Exemption of energy from the tariffs would also mean that India can continue to export fuels like gasoil and gasoline to the US.

The goods that were exempted from the tariffs made up for just over 25 per cent of the total exports from India to the US. The Indian government reacted cautiously, saying it is "carefully examining the implications" of the announcements and will also study opportunities that may arise due to this new development in the US trade policy.

Trump announced the imposition of additional ad valorem duties ranging from 10 per cent to 50 per cent on imports from all trading partners. The baseline duty of 10 per cent will be effective on India from April 5 and an additional 27 per cent from April 9.

The 27 per cent duty would be over and above any existing levy that Indian products entering the US may currently attract.

Though the move is expected to impact India's exports of certain goods to the US, experts say that India is better-placed than its competitors, including Bangladesh (37 per cent), China (54 per cent), Vietnam (46 per cent) and Thailand (36 per cent) who face increased levies.

President Trump, in a historic measure to counter higher duties on American products imposed globally, announced reciprocal tariffs on about 60 countries.

"This is Liberation Day, a long-awaited moment. April 2, 2025 will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America's destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to make America wealthy again. We are going to make it wealthy, good, and wealthy," Trump said in his remarks from the Rose Garden at the White House on Wednesday.

SC quashes appointment of 25,753 teachers, other staff in West Bengal
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In a setback to the West Bengal Government, the Supreme Court on Thursday quashed the appointment of 25,753 teachers and other staff in state-run and state-aided schools, holding that their selection process "vitiated and tainted" on account of “large-scale manipulation and tampering with results”.

“In our opinion, this is a case wherein the entire selection process has been vitiated and tainted beyond resolution. Manipulations and frauds on a large scale, coupled with the attempted cover-up, have dented the selection process beyond repair and partial redemption,” a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna said.

Upholding the Calcutta High Court’s April 22, 2024 verdict annulling the appointments, the top court concluded that there was “large-scale manipulation and tampering with results, including rank-jumping, discrepancies in marks”.“We find no valid ground or reason to interfere with the direction of the high court that the services of tainted candidates, where appointed, must be terminated, and they should be required to refund any salaries/payments received. Since their appointments were the result of fraud, this amounts to cheating. Therefore, we see no justification to alter this direction,” it said. “We uphold the impugned judgment cancelling en bloc/entire selection process but have made certain modifications in the directions issued by the high court,” it said.

Indicting the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) for trying to cover up the lapses and illegalities, the Bench said, “The contradictory stance of WBSSC on the possession and destruction of scanned/mirror copies of the OMR sheets reflects an attempt to cover up illegalities and lapses in the selection process.”

The top court ordered the West Bengal Government to initiate a fresh selection process and complete it in three months. It said petitions challenging the Calcutta High Court’s order for a CBI probe into the quashed appointments would be heard on April 8.

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Tribune News Service

Trump hits India with steep 27 pc tariffs

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