Elon Musk, speaking to Zerodha cofounder Nikhil Kamath on the People by WTF podcast, revealed that he had tried to dissuade United States President Donald Trump from imposing tariffs but was unsuccessful.”I mean, the President has made it clear he loves tariffs. You know, I’ve tried to dissuade him from this point of view, but unsuccessfully,” said Elon Musk.“I think generally free trade is better, is more efficient. Tariffs tend to create distortions in markets,” he said, adding that barriers make little sense even at a basic level. “Would you want tariffs between you and everyone else at an individual level? That would make life very difficult. Would you want tariffs between each city? No — that would be very annoying. Would you want tariffs between each state within the United States? That would be disastrous for the economy. So then why do you want tariffs between countries?”Trump tariffs impact:US President Donald Trump’s tariffs of 10% or higher on imports from most major trading partners disrupted international commerce through much of the year, spurring many American importers to front-load orders to avoid paying the import taxes, as well as shifting demand away from markets where the duties are the highest. US goods imports from China, for instance, sank 22% through August this year, but year-to-date shipments from markets including Vietnam, India, Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan all gained more than 20%, according to data released in Washington this month. According to the WTO’s most recent forecast, made on Oct. 7, world trade volume growth this year is expected to be 2.4%, slower than the 2.8% pace posted in 2024. The outlook for next year anticipates a sharp slowdown, to 0.5% growth, the organization said.Live EventsTrump tariff on India:The US, India’s largest export destination, imposed tariffs starting at 10 per cent in April, which escalated to 25 per cent by early August and then to 50 per cent by the end of the month. The effects were immediate and severe. In just five months, India’s exports to the US fell from USD 8.8 billion to USD 5.5 billion.Currently, India is awaiting a formal response from Washington on the bilateral trade package, the first tranche of which both sides had planned to conclude by fall. The negotiations continue as the US has imposed 50% tariffs on most Indian exports from August 27, half of which is a penalty linked to India’s purchase of Russian energy. India expects these duties to affect $48.2 billion worth of goods based on 2024 export values. To boost bilateral trade with US, India is seeking duty concessions for labour-intensive sectors like textiles, gems and jewellery, leather goods, garments, plastics, chemicals, shrimp, oil seeds, chemicals, grapes, and bananas in the proposed pact with America. On the other hand, the US demands duty concessions in sectors like certain industrial goods, automobiles (electric vehicles in particular), wines, petrochemical products, dairy, and agriculture items such as apples, tree nuts and GM (genetically modified) crops.
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