Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said global trade is increasingly “getting weaponised” through tariffs and other measures, and India will have to negotiate its way carefully.
She said that the overall strength of the economy will give the country an added advantage, the media reported her as saying at an event.
“Trade is getting weaponised through tariffs, through many other measures, and India will have to negotiate its way carefully in this. We should not just take care of tariffs, but I think overall our economy’s strength is what is going to give us that additional advantage,” Sitharaman said at Times Network‘s India Economic Conclave 2025. She
The FM said that, globally, it is now “very clear” that trade is not free and fair.
“India can be lectured saying you (India) are very inward-looking, you are a tariff king and so on. But tariff has been weaponized,” she said, adding India’s intention was never to weaponize tariffs.
India, Sitharaman said, only safeguarded its domestic industries against flooding from a “predator.”
But the weaponization of trade today is without criticism, she said, adding that some nations say that tariffs are not good and no one should take these measures but “suddenly we have newer people, saying we’ll come up with tariff barriers and there’s no questioning. So that seems to be the new normal.”
Sitharaman’s remarks on global trade came in the wake of high tariffs imposed by the US. Its neighbor, Mexico, has also recently announced to impose high tariffs in countries with which they do not have free trade agreements (FTAs).
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