Reeling from Trump's tariffs, India and China seek a business reboot

 

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in China on Sunday with the sting of Donald Trump's US tariffs still top of mind.

Since Wednesday, tariffs on Indian goods bound for the US, like diamonds and prawns, now stand at 50% – which the US president says is punishment for Delhi's continued purchase of Russian oil.

Experts say the levies threaten to leave lasting bruises on India's vibrant export sector, and its ambitious growth targets.

China's Xi Jinping, too, is trying to revive a sluggish Chinese economy at a time when sky-high US tariffs threaten to derail his plans.

Against this backdrop, the leaders of the world's two most populous countries may both be looking for a reset in their relationship, which has previously been marked by mistrust, a large part of it driven by border disputes.

"Put simply, what happens in this relationship matters to the rest of the world," Chietigj Bajpaee and Yu Jie of Chatham House wrote in a recent editorial.

"India was never going to be the bulwark against China that the West (and the United States in particular) thought it was... Modi's China visit marks a potential turning point."

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