Trump's tariff rant at India presages more trade troubles with US

WASHINGTON: A lone Trumpian tweet twitting India on tariffs hung out on Twitter on Tuesday amid a raft of other rants, eliciting the usual quota of ridicule and derision for a President whose tetchy temperament is now a feast for trolls.
“India has long had a field day putting Tariffs on American products. No longer acceptable!” Trump tweeted shortly after 8 am on Tuesday, the tweet coming amid a blazing, petulant row with the British ambassador to the US, who the US President called “wacky,” “stupid,” and a “pompous fool.”

It was not clear what caused him to suddenly loose off a tweet on the tariff row with India, coming as it did several days after New Delhi’s retaliatory tariffs against American products such as almonds and apples that in turn came after US tariffs and trade barriers against Indian products such as steel and aluminum. But it invited heaps of mockery by a constituency that now seems to relish every oddball presidential tweet.
From “Nurse, he’s out of bed again!” to “Can someone take his phone away please!” there were several eye-rolling putdowns on a day Trump went full tilt at the British, whose envoy reportedly called Trump "inept" in diplomatic cable and said his administration was mired in chaos.
While such assessments are quite common in diplomatic cables home, the leaking of the British ambassadors appraisal drove Trump, widely seen as thin-skinned, into a white-hot fury the likes of which Presidents seldom display towards envoys.
After reportedly disinviting him from a White House reception, Trump virtually declared him a persona non-grata, tweeting, “the wacky Ambassador that the UK foisted upon the United States is not someone we are thrilled with, a very stupid guy.”
Trump also virtually dictated a change in the leadership and policies in the UK, adding, “He (the British ambassador) should speak to his country, and Prime Minister May, about their failed Brexit negotiation, and not be upset with my criticism of how badly it was ...handled. I told @theresa_may how to do that deal, but she went her own foolish way-was unable to get it done. A disaster!”

The sole tweet strike against India followed soon after.
Trump’s tariff twitch against India has mystified experts in the field. “I am skeptical that Trump’s latest tariff escalation is intended to fix longstanding problems in the US trade relationship with India. The worry? This is just another excuse for him to impose even more duties on yet another country,” tweeted Chad Brown, a fellow at the Peterson Institute and co-host of the Trade Talks podcast.
Brown said since January 2018, Trump has increased tariffs on 14% of India’s exports to the United States, and in June, 2019, India retaliated against 6% of US exports to India — including $600 million of California almonds.
“Historically, the US-India trade relationship has been fraught with conflict. That LONG pre-dates Trump. But are THESE tariffs as far as things go?” Brown wrote, warning that “Trump has reportedly considered a Section 301 case against India. So it could lead to MORE tariffs.”
In Video:Donald Trump again attacks India over tariffs