United States President Donald Trump’s adversarial tariff policy on India has largely been regarded ‘flip-flop’ hinting at fluid stance and diabolical in spirit and content.

From being most favoured trading ally with minimal tariff proposal of 10 per cent in April 2025, India has been bracketed in the list of enemy countries that attract highest impost of 50 per cent.

Numbers and data apart, there has been a lot of noise, nervousness and anxiety as clock ticked 4 pm in last few days in India. It’s at about that time of the day Trump first announced 25 per cent and later doubled it to 50 per cent triggering a flurry of activity.

Old-timers did not miss the drama, show, and high-decibel drama that Trump put on these days targeting one or other trading partners. It was the turn of Bharat in the last few days.

A 21-day window announced for tariffs to kick in signalled that Trump was open to negotiation before inking the trade deal. It’s one way of exerting pressure on New Delhi’s negotiators to sign on a ‘bad trade deal’ which means granting US unhindered access to agriculture, fisheries and dairy sector in India.

President Trump’s optimism to drive a hard bargain also reflects from his statement, “it’s only been eight hours, let’s see what happens…you are going to see a lot more and some secondary sanctions."

The eight-hour time frame referred to by Trump hints at his ‘wait, watch and strike’ attitude in the midst of........

© News18