Latest news with #HarleyDavidsons
News.com.au
03-05-2025
- Automotive
- News.com.au
GWM launches SOUL S2000
The eight-cylinder engine has found an unlikely saviour: China's GWM and its Soul S2000 motorcycle. While most car brands have ditched emotive but thirsty V8s, GWM has this week announced a V8 plug-in hybrid engine for its SUVs, while also launching a flat eight-cylinder in its two-wheeled monster. And we've ridden it. A rival for the Honda Gold Wing tourer and thumping Harley Davidsons, this Soul with 2.0-litre motor is one of history's few eight-cylinder motorcycles, and the first ever with a horizontally opposed or 'boxer' version. In a classic 'mine's bigger than yours' flex by GWM, it's delivered an absolute weapon. There's 113kW and 190Nm on tap, about matching a Mazda3's numbers; a hatchback weighing around three times as much as this two-wheeler. Even so, the Soul's no lightweight. It tips the scales at 461kg, so I'm obviously apprehensive about just getting this beast balanced once off its kickstand. My little Honda CB250 back home weighs 120kg, so this is a seriously lardy upgrade for me. Not least because I lack the flowing beard and barrel chest typically expected of riders on giant touring motorcycles. A flick of the (rather cheap-feeling) plastic central dial turns on the ignition, and a 12.3-inch touchscreen fires up. This digitally displays my vitals and multiple menus, including aids like cruise control, rear parking sensors, lane change assist, blind spot monitor and even rear cross traffic alert. By contrast, my 1999 Honda cafe racer doesn't even have a rev counter. Rider aids? Front and rear brakes. My backside perched on the wide, pleated and heated seat, I fire up the eight. Good God. What a sound. It's smooth but with just enough burble and old-school rumble punching through its large twin pipes. I twist the throttle and let the heavy-drinking cylinders begun their gulping. There's theatre aplenty, and my journalist peers sampling GWM's four-cylinder hybrid SUVs across our test ground look over with envy. Stuff your hybrids. This is what a proper damn engine sounds like. The Soul's size and weight are confronting, but it's a breeze to ride. My vintage Honda is a delicate balancing act of choke, throttle, clutch and trying not to stall while the old carburettor'd twin cylinder warms up. By contrast, this Chinese Soul does everything for you. It has an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission – something you're more likely to find in an executive German sedan. I flick it into Drive, gently twist the throttle (also heated, by the way) and dare to lift both feet onto the pegs. The fear of me dropping it looms large – it'd need an army to get it back upright. I've got something weighing as much as an entire Caterham 7 between my thighs, and I figure if it starts to topple over I'm going to have to ditch and run. Then apologise. Thankfully, it's incredibly stable and simple to pilot. I open its lungs and immediately I'm getting all the attention. It blasts away sounding like something you'd hear at the Bathurst 1000, bounces off the rev limiter and slickly shifts up through the gears. The torque pull is mega. It's quick, too. Not superbike speeds, but hauling over half a tonne (with rider on board) to 100km/h in just five seconds is enough to tickle the senses. I begged to the motorcycle gods for the front wheel not to lift up. It glides along thanks to electronic variable damping front and rear, and seriously drops anchor with a Brembo big brake kit. Turning is more of an issue. No Valentino Rossi elbow-down moves here; better to give it plenty of space. But handily, there are toggle levers where the clutch handle would normally be, allowing low-speed electric reversing for easy manoeuvres. With an empty bit of Chinese car park ahead, I flick into Sport and manual mode and throttle on again. Just wow. It's a riot of noise and thrills and acceleration. I'd love to lap Australia on one of these. But there's a price problem. The conversion from Chinese yuan is about $50,000, and eight-cylinder or not, that's hefty for a motorbike. And while there's a claimed 5.9L/100km, the telltale readout on our bike showed over 10L/100km. Like a proper eight-cylinder, it enjoys a drink. But goodies include twin LED headlights, 118L of luggage space in three cases, power adjustable windshield, eight-speaker sound system and smartphone connectivity.
Telegraph
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The poshest man in Britpop: ‘There's aristocratic musicians pretending they grew up on council estates'
This is the ballad of the Honourable Louis Eliot, former Britpop pin-up and heir presumptive to Earldom of St Germans. He was taught to play guitar by a member of Hawkwind, ran festivals at his ancestral home in Port Eliot, played guitar for Grace Jones and, for a brief, shining moment in the 1990s was poised to be the next big thing. 'If you had made it, you would surely have been the poshest rock star in history,' I point out. 'Well, I still might be,' he dryly responds. Eliot is staging a belated comeback with his critically admired band Rialto, returning after a 24-year absence with Neon and Ghost Signs, a sparkling, brittle collection of pop gems about lost nights and bittersweet dawns, released this week. 'It's basically a middle-aged man searching for a youth he missed out on but only finding the bruises in the morning.' Let's deal with his title first. 'It's an anachronism, isn't it?' Eliot laughs, softly. He cuts a dashing figure at 57. Leonine and handsome in a mod jacket and smart jeans. He looks every inch old Britpop royalty, but there is little to suggest he is a scion of one of England's most venerable aristocratic families. 'Can you imagine expecting anyone to address you as The Honourable? There's an inherent contradiction in calling yourself that.' Eliot's upbringing was equal parts bohemian and eccentric aristo, 'kind of free range, benign neglect.' His late father, Peregrine, the 10 th Earl of St Germans, was described at his funeral in 2016 by poet Heathcote Williams as 'an unusual mix of hippie and stiff upper lip.' His Countess mother Jacquetta Eliot (born Lampson) was a noted beauty who partied with the Beatles and modelled naked for Lucien Freud, with whom she had a tumultuous affair and featured in nine of his most famous paintings. Eliot spent his childhood between Ladbroke Grove, London 'playing music in the kitchen with my mum's boyfriend' (Duart Maclean from short-lived punk band Bank of Dresden) and summers at Port Eliot, an enormous mansion of 'dilapidated wings and 200-year-old wallpaper peeling off the walls.' His father's biker friends camped out on the 6000-acre estate, where Eliot and his brothers would beg for rides on Harley Davidsons. 'There were no real rules, apart from lunch at one and clean shoes indoors.' His parents staged the Elephant Fayre, a music and arts festival that featured Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure and the Fall, from 1981 to 1986. 'My dad and Michael Eavis were friends. If he'd held it together it could be as enormous as Glastonbury, but dad didn't have those ambitions.' Life in London wasn't much more regulated. Eliot remembers Freud in 'paint-spotted chef trousers jangling with coins, notes falling out of his pockets. His attitude towards money was that if he had it, he would gamble it away. He was very anti being comfortable.' Louis received guitar lessons from Huw Lloyd-Langton of Hawkwind 'an inspiring, lovely man.' His father once tried to pay for lessons with a lump of hash, which didn't go down well. 'Huw had forsworn all drugs after a terrible psychedelic experience.' By 19, Eliot was at Chelsea Art School when he was roped into performing at a working men's club. 'I had a fear of getting up on stage. I nearly bottled it.' But he 'gave it my all' singing country standard Heartaches by the Number. 'It was a cathartic moment.' He was walking home when 'out of the shadows I heard this voice saying, 'Nice singing, Louis.' I looked up, and it was Joe Strummer.' The Clash frontman had been in the audience. 'He was one of my heroes. I stood there speechless while he walked off. But it gave me a boost of confidence.' Handsome, personable, talented and well-connected, Eliot seemed destined for success. Noel Gallagher was a fan of his early 90's indie glam rock band, Kinky Machine. They morphed into Rialto who scored some smart hits, with Melody Maker predicting a 'future of Oasis -like proportions.' But it all suddenly unravelled during a record label shake-up at the end of the decade. 'You've gotta have the goods, and then you've gotta have the luck,' says Eliot. 'And there's not that much luck to go around in this business.' He insists he never became despondent. He moved back to Cornwall, where he raised two children with long-standing girlfriend Murphy Williams (daughter of poet Hugo Williams), released solo albums and co-wrote Will Young's Leave Right Now, which won an Ivor Novello in 2004. 'That's the dream, writing a song that sticks around.' He acknowledges privilege. 'I always knew I'd have a roof over my head, which is an incredible gift. It meant I could keep making music.' He ran a literary festival at Port Eliot that came to an end with the pandemic and played pubs with a punky Celtic Cornish band. 'I've played some of my best gigs in front of 20 people at the Betsey Trotwood in Clerkenwell. I just love to play.' Playing in a functions band led to his next break, when Grace Jones turned up as a guest at a wedding. 'We played Pull Up to the Bumper and Grace wound up on stage at a marquee in the countryside, the tent was jumping, and I was beaming, that one riff going round and round and round. It was the most fun I'd had playing guitar ever. I said afterwards, if you ever need a guitar player, I'd love to do it.' When the call eventually came, 'I was literally jumping for joy. I didn't have to audition. It was straight off to Australia for some shows.' Eliot tells amusing tales about Grace at a 'gritty techno festival' in Serbia making the seven-piece Grace Jones band play a 37-minute outro to Slave to the Rhythm whilst hula hooping topless. 'Physically she is in incredible condition,' he says of the 76-year-old star, recalling a time she fell off a 12-foot platform mid-song. 'I spot her between the drum kit and bass amp, and she mouths 'Keep playing!'' 'Grace's rider is to be admired,' he smiles. 'She's always got the best suite in the best hotel in the city. There's a party after every gig. I've left her suite at seven in the morning, thinking I'm finished, but she's in her leotard with her tennis racket out ready to destroy someone.' In 2019, a medical emergency almost ended everything. Eliot collapsed on a family holiday in Spain. 'I was delirious, but I knew I was dying.' In the hospital, they removed part of his intestine. 'It was touch and go, quite traumatic, but I had this incredible will to get better. I had the feeling, 'I need to get out of this'. And this was everything.' Eliot feels he received a second chance. 'All those cliches about life not being a rehearsal were resonating very deeply.' His 25 year on-off relationship with Murphy Williams came to an end, their children were at university, and Eliot was suddenly back in a world he thought he had left behind with Rialto, a man about London town, late nights and regretful mornings. 'I had a sense of switching off the autopilot and grabbing the wheel.' Our interview started in the Groucho Club, scene of many Britpop hijinks, and wound up at the tiny Royal Exchange pub in Paddington, where members of The Clash and Big Audio Dynamite have been known to play DJ sets. Eliot seems to know everyone, from old rockers to young hipsters. When someone cheekily asks if Eliot is 'the oldest swinger in town' he shoots back 'No, but I'm gonna be!' I've known the Honourable Louis a long time. He has a certain sweetness, a shy smile and easy wit, with a sensitivity that adds weight to his beautifully formed songwriting. I was a fan of Rialto in the 1990s, and their new album recaptures that same spirit of nightlife drama with an added yearning and pathos that comes with age, the feeling that everything is slipping away. I ask him what his expectations really are, this former contender, emerging from the shadows to give it another shot. 'I had a plan once, I was going to go to art college, then get a record deal by 24, and all of that happened,' says Louis. 'When I started making this record, I really thought I'd be happy with a few good reviews and a spin on 6 Music. And I've had that, we've got gigs coming up, and people seem excited to have Rialto back. That's really all it's about. To receive validation for your poetic self, that's the reward. To be heard.' So will he ever be the poshest star in rock and roll? 'Oh, I could out a few others,' he smiles. 'There's definitely musicians from the last gasps of the aristocratic families out there pretending they were raised on housing estates. But I'm not naming names.'
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Canadian Fury With Trump Is About More Than Just Trade
(Bloomberg) -- It was -20C (-4F) in Ottawa on the night of Feb. 1, one of the most bitterly cold days in Canada's winter of discontent. Shortly after 9 p.m., in a historic government building known as the West Block, Justin Trudeau walked to a lectern placed in front of four Canadian flags. Everyone had been waiting for hours to hear how he planned to respond to US President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago broadside. Nice Airport, If You Can Get to It: No Subway, No Highway, No Bridge Citadel to Leave Namesake Chicago Tower as Employees Relocate NYC Sees Pedestrian Traffic Increase in Congestion-Pricing Zone How London's Taxi Drivers Navigate the City Without GPS Transportation Memos Favor Places With Higher Birth and Marriage Rates Trudeau did something unusual. He began talking about war, and history. Saying that he wanted to speak to Americans directly, he quoted John F. Kennedy, reminded people that Canada helped try to free US hostages in Iran in 1979, and spoke of the Canadian soldiers who were left to bleed to their deaths in Afghanistan after 9/11. 'From the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of the Korean Peninsula, from the fields of Flanders to the streets of Kandahar, we have fought and died alongside you,' he said. But the prime minister's main audience was not US television viewers. By invoking Canada's military past, Trudeau was also trying to achieve something he has struggled to do as his political capital dwindled over the past few years. He was trying to stir patriotism and unity among Canadians, while stoking their outrage at Trump's decision to break the countries' trade arrangement. He wanted them to feel pride and anger at the same time. Trudeau struck back at the US, saying that Canada would put its own 25% tariffs on thousands of US products — Harley Davidsons and Tropicana orange juice and yes, Elon Musk's Teslas. Two days later, the countries declared a short-term truce after Trudeau agreed to extra measures to stamp out drug trafficking, Trump's stated reason for putting tariffs against Canada and Mexico. The 30-day tariff delay does a lot to minimize the immediate damage to Canada's economy. It does little to stem Canadians' fury and bewilderment — because that part isn't about trade, really. In December, when it emerged that Trump had poked Trudeau over dinner in south Florida about Canada becoming the 51st state, Canadians mostly took it as a joke. When Trump kept going with social media posts mocking the longest-serving leader in the Group of Seven as 'Governor' Trudeau, they saw it as punching down. By this point, the prime minister was a spent force, politically. Trudeau announced his resignation on Jan. 6. The country was still vibrating from that news the following day when Trump gave a press conference about buying Greenland, taking the Panama Canal and using 'economic force' to absorb Canada into the US. In Canada, a switch was flipped on Jan. 7: Oh, he means it. And as Trump has continued to throw the 51st state jab — accompanied by a carousel of grievances about the trade deficit, the border, and the fact that Canada manufactures cars — the relationship between two of the closest democratic allies of the postwar era has ruptured. No matter what happens with trade and tariffs, the damage may last for a generation, especially if Trump persists. 'It's not just because this is how he does business, this is how he negotiates,' said Lori Turnbull, a professor in the faculty of management at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. 'There's every reason to think that he is looking at the resources Canada has — whether it's energy, water — he's looking at that and thinking, 'Why do we have barriers to that at all?'' Political Theater It has been a dizzying month since that news conference. Canadian politics has been turned upside down. The contest to replace Trudeau as prime minister now turns on the question of who is best to manage the Trump Factor. The leading Liberal Party contenders — Mark Carney, the former central banker, and Chrystia Freeland, the former finance minister — take turns using ever more heated language to denounce Trump and to promise a strategy that will protect Canadian sovereignty. Pierre Poilievre, a combative and social-media-savvy conservative, looked to be on a path to an easy win over the Liberals as long as Trudeau stuck around. He's still the favorite to win the national election that may come as early as April, but some recent polls suggest there's movement against him. Poilievre, 45, is easily the most sure-footed Conservative Party politician since Stephen Harper, who governed for almost a decade before he was bested by Trudeau in 2015. He understands policy, speaks to economic issues that people care about, and is skilled at turning a tough question into his favorite talking points. He's a patriotic Canadian who has been trying on 'Canada First' as his new motto lately. If he has a problem, it's that nobody has any idea how he would handle being bullied over dinner at Mar-a-Lago. 'The election is no longer about Trudeau, it's no longer about a carbon tax. It is about a much more existential question, about what's best for Canada and who is best to do that,' Turnbull said. 'That could split all kinds of ways.' Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who was caught on a hot mic saying that he was happy when Trump won in November, saw an opportunity in the trade crisis to call an early election. He's now campaigning for a third term and is likely to win a huge majority by running against an opponent who's not on the ballot — Trump. 'I love the Americans, I love the US,' Ford, a former businessman who had corporate interests in Chicago, said in an interview with Bloomberg shortly before Christmas. 'I just look forward to a rewarding business relationship, back and forth across the border.' And there was Ford again on Monday, saying that he would bar all US companies, including Musk's Starlink, from getting government contracts. 'No matter if we're building a hospital, if we're building anything — we could be building a doghouse — I want to make sure that we're using Ontario steel, Canadian products.' As he spoke, the managers of the government-controlled liquor distributor were readying to pull bottles of Jack Daniels and California pinot noir off the shelves — with the television cameras invited to record it. Some of this is simply political theater. Trudeau, Ford and every economist understand how vulnerable Canada is in a trade war with its largest trading partner. Fully three-quarters of Canadian exports go to the US, with some of the biggest products being oil, gas and the Ontario-made auto parts and vehicles that Trump dislikes so much. Ontario's worst-case projection for a trade war that hammers its auto sector is 500,000 lost jobs. That would be about 1 in every 16 working people in the province. Canada was lulled into complacency by decades of relatively low-friction trade with the world's largest economy and by an early-century oil boom — before the US shale revolution — that briefly gave Canadians the false impression that they were indispensable to American economic power. For years, the goal was to build more and bigger oil and gas pipelines going south. That old-economy bet doesn't look so good today. The US technology sector is riding a wave, or perhaps a mania, of enthusiasm for artificial intelligence, led by trillion-dollar companies. Canada boasts some promising startups and excellent universities — the most recent Nobel Prize for physics went to a University of Toronto professor — but just one tech company worth more than $100 billion. As good as Canadians are at digging Earth's treasures out of the ground, they've been even better at allowing foreigners to snap up their best companies, brightest talent, and most important research and intellectual property. 'Is our economic structure too close to Russia's? The shame of that is we have tremendous potential to be much, much more than that,' said Jim Balsillie, the former co-chief executive officer of BlackBerry Ltd., once the world's most valuable smartphone company. 'So, I don't think we should consign ourselves to be a low-value-added petrostate, selling a few other resources and a bit of agriculture.' Balsillie said that while Canada was busy extolling the virtues of liberalized global trade and trying to expand commodity production, the US was focused on owning intellectual property, controlling data, and changing the rules to make 'free trade' less free. Deals like the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which Trump signed in 2020, are less about promoting tariff-free exchange and more about exerting 'strategic behavior' that strengthens US dominance. 'I read agreements, and I know how Americans work,' Balsillie said. Canada's Identity So, Canada has woken up. If the US won't honor its treaties, the northern nation of more than 41 million people will have to rethink, well, just about every basic assumption they've held about economics and security since at least the 1980s. Robert Asselin, one of Trudeau's former advisers, calls it a 'Sputnik moment.' Promoting exports is out. Self-reliance is in. In his view, Canada needs its own version of DARPA, the technology research agency launched by the US Defense Department after the Soviet Union launched the first satellite in the late 1950s. That means a concerted government push to bring more investment in Canadian-owned tech, defense, energy and AI. 'You need a technology strategy,' said Asselin, now a policy adviser to the Business Council of Canada. 'Other countries have done it, and there there's no ingredients we don't have to make it work.' Ideas once left for dead are now getting another look. Energy East, an ambitious plan for a pipeline to pump crude oil from Alberta to Quebec, was shelved in 2017. Now it's being talked about as a way to sell more western oil to other markets, including eastern Canada, which currently takes some of its energy via pipelines that come back into the country via the US. But those are long-term answers. In the meantime, Canadians are figuring out small gestures: passing around guides on how to find Canadian products in stores, canceling US vacations, and lashing out as people do when hurt. Six years ago, the most heralded athlete in Canada was Kawhi Leonard, the American basketball star who led the Toronto Raptors to their only championship. On Sunday, Leonard's current team, the Los Angeles Clippers, played in Toronto. Fans booed 'The Star-Spangled Banner.' Why does Trump's 51st state notion offend people in Canada? Wouldn't it make them richer, as the president says? Yes. And yet polls show that a large majority of Canadians are against the idea. 'It's demeaning to Canada to say, 'Oh you're just a country that we could absorb' when in reality it's a country that has its own sense of place in the world,' said Terri Givens, a political science professor who's from Spokane, Washington, but now lives in Vancouver and teaches at the University of British Columbia. That 'sense of place' comes from the history that Trudeau alluded to in his Feb. 1 speech. In fact, Canada exists because of the fear of annexation. By 1867, having witnessed the violence of the American Civil War and fearful of US aggression, the leaders of British North American colonies decided to link up and form the Dominion of Canada. It was still a relatively young nation when it sent its soldiers to the front lines in 1914, and when it declared war on Nazi Germany in September 1939, as the US hesitated. Canadians understand this history. Each year, many of them visit the cemeteries and memorials of western Europe and look at the names. This is the problem for Trump's 51st state project. You can buy oil and cars, or not. But you can't buy a nation's identity. --With assistance from Thomas Seal. Business Schools Confront Trump Immigration Policies Orange Juice Makers Are Desperate for a Comeback Believing in Aliens Derailed This Internet Pioneer's Career. Now He's Facing Prison The Reason Why This Super Bowl Has So Many Conspiracy Theories Inside Elon Musk's Attack on the US Government ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Saudi Gazette
05-02-2025
- Business
- Saudi Gazette
India looks on nervously as Trump wields tariff threat
NEW DELHI — Last week India further slashed import duties on motorcycles, cutting tariffs on heavyweight bikes with engines above 1,600cc from 50% to 30% and smaller ones from 50% to 40%.A pre-emptive move designed to further smoothen the entry of Harley Davidsons into India – and, Delhi hopes, ward off any threat of tariffs. US motorcycle exports to India were worth $3m last Trump has marked his return to the White House by brandishing trade measures against America's neighbours and allies as well as its big rival hopes it is ahead of the game – but will its tariff cuts satisfy Trump, or is trade action still on the table?"Canada and Mexico are literally two arms of the US. If he has acted against them, he could easily act against India too," says Ajay Srivastava, founder of the Delhi-based think tank Global Trade Research Institute (GTRI).In their phone conversation late last month, the US president pressed Prime Minister Narendra Modi to buy more US arms and for there to be a fairer trade balance, keeping the pressure during his first term, Trump fixated on India's steep tariffs. He repeatedly slammed the then 100% duty on Harleys as "unacceptable", making it a rallying point in his crusade against what he saw as unfair trade the past he repeatedly branded India a "tariff king" and a "big abuser" of trade enjoys a trade surplus with the US, its top trading partner. Bilateral trade crossed $190bn (£150bn) in 2023. Merchandise exports to US have surged 40% to $123bn since 2018, while services trade grew 22% to reach $66bn. Meanwhile, US exports to India stood at $ beyond bikes, India has zeroed out import taxes on satellite ground installations, benefiting US exporters who supplied $92m worth in on synthetic flavouring essences dropped from 100% to 20% ($21m in US exports last year), while duties on fish hydrolysate for aquatic feed fell from 15% to 5% ($35m in US exports in 2024). India also scrapped tariffs on select waste and scrap items, a category where US exports amounted to $2.5bn last US exports to India in 2023 included crude oil and petroleum products ($14bn), LNG, coal, medical devices, scientific instruments, scrap metals, turbojets, computers and almonds."While Trump has criticised India's tariff policies, the latest reductions signal a policy shift that could enhance US exports across various sectors," says Srivastava."With key tariff cuts on technology, automobiles, industrial and waste imports, India appears to be taking steps towards facilitating trade even as the global trade environment remains tense."Meanwhile India's exports span a diverse range – from textiles, pharmaceuticals and engineering goods to petroleum oils, machinery and cut diamonds. It also ships smartphones, auto parts, shrimp, gold jewellery, footwear and iron and steel, making it a key player in global trade."This diverse range of products reflects India's broad export base and its strong trade relationship with the US," says was once among the world's most protectionist economies. In the 1970s, American political scientist Joseph Grieco described it as having one of the "most restrictive, cumbersome... regimes regulating foreign direct investments".This inward-looking approach led to a steady decline in India's export share of global trade, from 2.42% in 1948 to just 0.51% by 1991. As Aseema Sinha, author of Globalizing India: How Global Rules and Markets are Shaping India's Rise to Power, observed, this period was marked by "a self-driven industrialisation drive, export pessimism, and suspicion of global alliances".India finally opened up in the 1990s and 2000s, cutting average tariffs from 80% in 1990 to 13% in after Modi launched his "Make in India" policy to boost manufacturing in India tariffs have climbed again to about 18% — higher than those set by other Asian nations such as China, South Korea, Indonesia and expert Biswajit Dhar believes India is now a prime target under Trump's "America First" policy, which seeks reciprocal action against high import taxes and reassesses trade with large US market access remains a sticking point for the US, he dropped retaliatory tariffs on US-made almonds, apples, chickpeas, lentils and walnuts in 2023, but Trump will likely demand more. However, India may hold firm given domestic political sensitivity around farming."This is where we will drive a hard bargain, and problems could arise," cautions said, India's strategic ties with the US – as a Quad member countering China – could help ease friction. India's willingness to accept the deportation of undocumented Indian migrants in the US without pushing back has also sent a positive signal, Dhar notes. Experts also point to Modi's warm personal rapport with Trump as an advantage. Some clarity will come when the Indian prime minister visits the White House – this month, according to some reports – at Trump's invitation. — BBC
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
India looks on nervously as Trump wields tariff threat
Last week India further slashed import duties on motorcycles, cutting tariffs on heavyweight bikes with engines above 1,600cc from 50% to 30% and smaller ones from 50% to 40%. A pre-emptive move designed to further smoothen the entry of Harley Davidsons into India – and, Delhi hopes, ward off any threat of tariffs. US motorcycle exports to India were worth $3m last year. Donald Trump has marked his return to the White House by brandishing trade measures against America's neighbours and allies as well as its big rival China. India hopes it is ahead of the game – but will its tariff cuts satisfy Trump, or is trade action still on the table? "Canada and Mexico are literally two arms of the US. If he has acted against them, he could easily act against India too," says Ajay Srivastava, founder of the Delhi-based think tank Global Trade Research Institute (GTRI). In their phone conversation late last month, the US president pressed Prime Minister Narendra Modi to buy more US arms and for there to be a fairer trade balance, keeping the pressure on. And during his first term, Trump fixated on India's steep tariffs. He repeatedly slammed the then 100% duty on Harleys as "unacceptable", making it a rallying point in his crusade against what he saw as unfair trade practices. In the past he repeatedly branded India a "tariff king" and a "big abuser" of trade ties. India enjoys a trade surplus with the US, its top trading partner. Bilateral trade crossed $190bn (£150bn) in 2023. Merchandise exports to US have surged 40% to $123bn since 2018, while services trade grew 22% to reach $66bn. Meanwhile, US exports to India stood at $70bn. But beyond bikes, India has zeroed out import taxes on satellite ground installations, benefiting US exporters who supplied $92m worth in 2023. Tariffs on synthetic flavouring essences dropped from 100% to 20% ($21m in US exports last year), while duties on fish hydrolysate for aquatic feed fell from 15% to 5% ($35m in US exports in 2024). India also scrapped tariffs on select waste and scrap items, a category where US exports amounted to $2.5bn last year. Top US exports to India in 2023 included crude oil and petroleum products ($14bn), LNG, coal, medical devices, scientific instruments, scrap metals, turbojets, computers and almonds. "While Trump has criticised India's tariff policies, the latest reductions signal a policy shift that could enhance US exports across various sectors," says Mr Srivastava. "With key tariff cuts on technology, automobiles, industrial and waste imports, India appears to be taking steps towards facilitating trade even as the global trade environment remains tense." Meanwhile India's exports span a diverse range – from textiles, pharmaceuticals and engineering goods to petroleum oils, machinery and cut diamonds. It also ships smartphones, auto parts, shrimp, gold jewellery, footwear and iron and steel, making it a key player in global trade. "This diverse range of products reflects India's broad export base and its strong trade relationship with the US," says Mr Srivastava. India was once among the world's most protectionist economies. In the 1970s, American political scientist Joseph Grieco described it as having one of the "most restrictive, cumbersome… regimes regulating foreign direct investments". This inward-looking approach led to a steady decline in India's export share of global trade, from 2.42% in 1948 to just 0.51% by 1991. As Aseema Sinha, author of Globalizing India: How Global Rules and Markets are Shaping India's Rise to Power, observed, this period was marked by "a self-driven industrialisation drive, export pessimism, and suspicion of global alliances". India finally opened up in the 1990s and 2000s, cutting average tariffs from 80% in 1990 to 13% in 2008. But after Modi launched his "Make in India" policy to boost manufacturing in India tariffs have climbed again to about 18% - higher than those set by other Asian nations such as China, South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand. Trade expert Biswajit Dhar believes India is now a prime target under Trump's "America First" policy, which seeks reciprocal action against high import taxes and reassesses trade with large US deficits. Agricultural market access remains a sticking point for the US, he says. India dropped retaliatory tariffs on US-made almonds, apples, chickpeas, lentils and walnuts in 2023, but Trump will likely demand more. However, India may hold firm given domestic political sensitivity around farming. "This is where we will drive a hard bargain, and problems could arise," cautions Mr Dhar. That said, India's strategic ties with the US – as a Quad member countering China – could help ease friction. India's willingness to accept the deportation of undocumented Indian migrants in the US without pushing back has also sent a positive signal, Mr Dhar notes. Experts also point to Modi's warm personal rapport with Trump as an advantage. Some clarity will come when the Indian prime minister visits the White House – this month, according to some reports – at Trump's invitation.
