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