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30-08-2025
Bureau Report + Agencies
NEW DELHI/ WASHINGTON: In a sprawling market in the Indian capital, Anuj Gupta sits in a corner of his shop as silence hangs over it.
Gupta sources and exports garment accessories, like laces and buttons to major global brands. But punishing tariffs imposed by United States President Donald Trump have brought Gupta’s business to its knees.
On Wednesday morning, India woke up to 50 percent tariffs imposed on its goods sold to the US, after the Trump administration followed through on its threat of doubling levies from 25 percent over India’s purchase of Russian oil. The White House says Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, among the top buyers of crude from Russia, is financing Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Indian officials have accused Washington of double standards, pointing towards how the European Union and China buy more from Russia and how Washington, too, still trades with Moscow.
In the fashion world, the cycle runs a year ahead, explains Gupta, clothes are being designed and made for autumn 2026 at the moment. So, the hovering uncertainty in the market has “hampered the work badly”, leaving a “big dent”, he said. Up to 40 percent of his business is in the US market.
Gupta said until Wednesday morning, he was still hoping against hope. “Maybe Trump is just bullying us for optics, or maybe Modi’s good relations with the US will rescue the situation,” he thought. “But we were the worst dealt.”
Five rounds of talks have failed to yield a trade deal between Washington and New Delhi, and Gupta said exporters now fear their customers might give up on India altogether. “If these tensions prolong, then buyers would look for alternative markets for sourcing,” he said.
As New Delhi grapples with Trump’s moves that walk the US back from two decades of diplomatic and strategic investments in India, analysts and economic observers say the tariffs could devastate key export-driven sectors of the Indian economy, with hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk.
‘It’s so helpless’
Ajay Sahai, the CEO of the Federation of Indian Export Organization (FIEO), the largest government-backed body of Indian exporters, was cautiously hopeful of help from the Modi administration after meeting the country’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, on Thursday.
“The government has fully assured us that they will provide all kinds of support needed to navigate this problem, perhaps including an economic package,” Sahai told media.
“The government has asked us to prepare a report, and then they will come up with a scheme,” he said. “(Sitharaman) has assured that there will be no layoffs – and that’s something we should honor.”
Yet, that’s easier said than done.
Textiles, gems, jewellery, carpets and shrimp are some of India’s biggest exports to the US and are expected to be among the worst hit by the tariffs.
K Anand Kumar, who manages shrimp exporting company Sandhya Marines and employs nearly 3,500 workers in a coastal town in Andhra Pradesh state on the Bay of Bengal, said that his business is on the verge of collapse.
More than 90 percent of his company’s cargoes head to the US market.
Last year, India exported an all-time high of 1.78 million metric tonnes of seafood worth $7.38bn. Shrimp dominates, contributing 92 percent of the total value. And the US takes in more than 40 percent of India’s shrimp shipments. (Int’l News Desk)
