The India-USA trade deal, recently announced, is up there with the best thrillers – who got who? Who won? Did anybody sell out?
And this one finished with a flourish and hint of a future drama – the Indian Commerce Minister, grilled on the likely higher US imports, responded that competitiveness of local industry should win over protectionism. More drama ahead.
India’s PM Modi and USA’s President Trump are mega leaders – macho in style.
But Trump effective 7 February lifted the punitive 25% tariff on India on the promise of no further purchases of Ruddian oil. Mysteriously PM Modi has made no comment on the oil.
INTO INDIA cannot side with critics who suggest Modi has bowed to US pressure.
We see this as a step in the right direction. Cheap Russian oil was always “old India strategy”. Perhaps the new strategy is access to the world’s largest market – the USA.
This is a win for pragmatism – after all, the USA is India’s biggest trading partner and source of capital; and for the US, India is another step in its wish to hedge China’s rise.
Winners and losers? Who knows. Perhaps we have a long-term strategic shift this time.
Author: Stephen Manallack
Former President, Australia India Business Council, Victoria and Author, You Can Communicate; Riding the Elephant; Soft Skills for a Flat World (published by Tata McGraw-Hill INDIA); Communicating Your Personal Brand.
Director, EastWest Academy Pty Ltd and Trainer/Speaker/Mentor in Leadership, Communication and Cross Cultural Communication.
Passionate campaigner for closer western relations with India.
Stephen Manallack is a specialist on “Doing Business with India” and advisor/trainer on “Cross-Cultural Understanding”. He is a Director of EastWest Academy Pty Ltd which provides strategic advice and counsel regarding business relations with India.
A regular speaker in India on leadership and global communication, his most recent speaking tour included a speech to students of the elite Indian university, Amity University, in Noida. He also spoke at a major Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) global summit, the PR Consultants Association of India in Delhi, the Symbiosis University in Pune and Cross-Cultural Training for Sundaram Business Services in Chennai. He has visited India on business missions on 10 occasions and led three major trade missions there. He provides cross-cultural training – Asia and the west.
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