GG USA 2849

Welcome to interactive presentation, created with Publuu. Enjoy the reading!

19th - 25th April 2025 www.garavigujarat.biz

COVER STORY

US TARIFFS exemptions for electronics

prompted market rallies Monday (14) from Asia

to Wall Street but failed to settle nerves over a

global trade war that Chinese leader Xi Jinping

warned would have ‘no winner.’

Investors are relieved at the apparent eas-

ing of pressure in president Donald Trump’s

wide-ranging but often chaotic attempt to

reorder the world economy by using tarifs to

force manufacturers to relocate to the US.

Tit-for-tat exchanges have seen US levies

imposed on China this year rise to 145 per cent,

and Beijing setting a retaliatory 125 per cent

barrier on US imports.

But even the electronics tarif reprieve -

that US ofcials late Friday (11) said would mean

exemptions from the latest 125 per cent duties

against China for a range of high-end tech goods

such as smartphones, semiconductors and com-

puters - brought new uncertainty.

Trump suggested Sunday (13) that the

exemption would be only temporary and said

he still planned to put barriers up on imported

semiconductors and much else.

‘NOBODY is getting ‘of the hook’ for the

unfair Trade Balances,’ Trump blasted on his

Truth Social platform. ‘We are taking a look at

Semiconductors and THE WHOLE ELECTRON-

ICS SUPPLY CHAIN.’

The Chinese commerce ministry said Fri-

day’s move was only ‘a small step’ and all tarifs

should be cancelled.

China’s Xi warned Monday (14) - as he

kicked of a Southeast Asia tour with a visit

to Vietnam - that protectionism ‘will lead

nowhere’ and a trade war would ‘produce no

winner.’

Short-lived relief?

Trump initially unveiled huge tarifs on coun-

tries around the world on 2 April.

He then made an about-face a week later

when he said only China would face the heavi-

est duties, while other countries got a global 10

MUMBAI terror attack key accused Tahawwur

Hussain Rana is being interrogated for eight

to ten hours daily by the National Investiga-

tion Agency (NIA) sleuths to unravel a larger

conspiracy behind the dreaded strikes, ofcial

sources said on Monday (14).

The 64-year-old Canadian citizen of Paki-

stan origin was brought to India on Thursday

(10), after being extradited from the US, and

sent to 18-day custody by a Delhi court.

The NIA ofcials are ensuring Rana’s daily

medical check-up and he is being allowed to

meet his lawyer, as per the court order.

The sources said Rana is being grilled by

the NIA investigators to probe the 2008 das-

tardly strikes orchestrated by Pakistan-based

terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba and in which

166 people were killed and over 238 injured.

‘Rana has been cooperating during the

questioning,’ a source said, adding that a team

of NIA ofcials led by chief investigating of-

cer Jaya Roy is interrogating him.

NIA is India’s federal counter-terrorism

law enforcement agency.

The sources said Rana has so far asked

for only three things - a pen, paper sheets or

notepad and Quran - which have

been provided to him.

They said there has not been

any specific food-related demand

raised by Rana so far and he is

being provided with ‘food items

which are given to any other ac-

cused’ according to the standard

protocols meant to deal with

such subjects.

Headley links probed

Rana is said to be grilled on the

basis of various leads gathered

by the probe agency during the

course of its investigation, in-

cluding a large number of phone

calls between him and his co-conspirator Da-

vid Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani, a US

citizen currently undergoing imprisonment

in the country.

The investigators also hope to find some

important leads on his travels in parts of

northern and southern India days before the

carnage in the country’s financial capital on

November 26, 2008, the sources said.

Rana had visited Hapur and Agra in Uttar

Pradesh, Delhi, Kochi in Kerala, Ahmedabad

in Gujarat, and Mumbai in Maharashtra with

his wife Samraz Rana Akhtar between 13-21

November, 2008.

The anti-terror agency had produced Rana

before the NIA special court at Patiala House

in New Delhi after formally placing him under

arrest following his arrival at the Indira Gand-

hi International airport on 10 April upon his

extradition from the US.

The NIA had secured Rana’s extradition

from the US following years of sustained

eforts and after the terror mastermind’s last-

ditch eforts to get a stay on his extradition

from the US failed.

The announcement that Rana would

finally be extradited came when prime min-

ister Narendra Modi visited the US capital in

February.

‘We are giving a very violent man back to

India immediately to face justice in India,’ US

president Donald Trump said at a joint press

conference with Modi on 14 February.

The NIA had registered a case on Novem-

ber 11, 2009 against Headley, his childhood

friend Rana and others.

During the NIA investigation, the roles

of senior functionaries of terror groups LeT

and Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami (HuJI) - Hafiz Mu-

hammad Saeed alias Tayyaji, Zaki-ur-Rehman

Lakhvi, Sajjid Majid alias Wasi, Illyas Kashmiri

and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed alias Major

Abdurrehman alias Pasha - had also emerged.

These conspirators allegedly worked in ac-

tive connivance with ofcials from Pakistan’s

spy agency ISI, according to the NIA probe.

Waiver calms markets, but tensions loom

Long grilling for Rana by India sleuths

The US president has warned that nobody is getting ‘of the hook’ and hinted at fresh taxes on semiconductors..

per cent tarif for a 90-day period.

The trade war is raising fears of an economic

downturn as the dollar tumbles and investors

dump US government bonds, normally consid-

ered a safe haven investment.

And the latest wrangling over high-tech

products - an area where China is a powerhouse

- illustrates the uncertainty plaguing investors.

Washington’s new exemptions will benefit

US tech companies such as Nvidia and Dell as

well as Apple, which makes iPhones and other

premium products in China. But the relief could

be short-lived, with some of the exempted

consumer electronics targeted for upcoming

sector-specific tarifs on goods deemed key to

US national defense networks.

On Air Force One Sunday, Trump said tarifs

on semiconductors - which power any major

technology from e-vehicles and iPhones to

missile systems - ‘will be in place in the not

distant future.’

‘Like we did with steel, like we did with

automobiles, like we did with aluminum... we’ll

be doing that with semiconductors, with chips

and numerous other things,’ he said.

‘We want to make our chips and semicon-

ductors and other things in our country,’ Trump

reiterated, adding that he would do the same

with ‘drugs and pharmaceuticals.’

The US president said he would announce

tarifs rates for semiconductors ‘over the next

week’ and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick

said they would likely be in place ‘in a month

or two.’

A top UN economist has warned that global

trade could shrink by 3 percent and exports

could see a shift to India, Canada and Brazil due

to tarifs imposed by the US.

‘Global trade could shrink by 3 per cent,

with significant long-term shifts in trade

patterns and economic integration,’ Interna-

tional Trade Centre executive director Pamela

Coke-Hamilton said in Geneva on Friday.

India, US finalize terms for trade deal

INDIA and the US have finalized terms of

reference for talks over the first part of a bilat-

eral trade deal, an Indian trade ofcial said on

Friday (11), adding it was possible that a ‘win-

win’ deal could take shape in the next 90 days.

India and the US agreed in February to

work on the first phase of a trade deal to be

concluded late this year, with a view to reach-

ing bilateral trade worth $500 billion by 2030.

‘We are far ahead in trade talks with the

US compared to other countries ... there are

lots of possibilities in 90 days,’ said the ofcial,

who did not want to be named because of the

sensitivity of the issue.

Reuters reported on Thursday that In-

dia wanted to move quickly to clinch a trade

deal following Trump’s tarif pause.

Trade discussions between the countries

will continue virtually and regularly, the ofcial

said, adding there could be some delegation-lev-

el visits from both sides as part of the talks.

Trump administration had announced

a 26 per cent tarif on Indian goods earlier this

month, and New Delhi had said it did not plan to

retaliate. Bilateral trade with the US, India’s

largest trading partner, rose to around $129

billion in 2024, with a $45.7 billion surplus in

favor of India.

India has asked its customs authorities

to step up scrutiny of exports and imports

of goods to ensure the country is not used

as a conduit to re-route goods to the US, the

ofcial said.

Trade analysts have said that, following

Trump’s huge increase in tariffs on China,

some companies could use India to divert

exports to the US market.

‘Neither will India be the source of trade

diversion for our products, nor will it become

a safe haven for others to divert through In-

dia,’ the ofcial said. ‘India wants to remain a

trusted trading partner. This is the message of

prime minister Narendra Modi to all govern-

ment ofcials and industry.’

Donald Trump

Tahawwur Rana (second fron left) in

New Delhi

Made with Publuu - flipbook maker