US Slashes 50% Tariffs to 18% as India Opens Markets in Interim Trade Pact

This deal recalls the 1985 US–Japan Semiconductor and Plaza Accords, when Washington used tariff threats to force market openings and managed-trade purchase targets; both temporarily eased frictions yet seeded later resentment. The pact fits a longer trend of the US leveraging Section 232 and tariff surcharges (2018-24) as bargaining chips, and of India’s gradual post-1991 shift from protectionism to selective liberalisation. Strategically, it signals the two countries’ intent to embed supply chains outside China, tie India’s energy demand to US exports, and align tech standards (not unlike the 1947 GATT framework anchoring post-war commerce). Over a 100-year horizon, its importance will hinge on whether the promised full Bilateral Trade Agreement materialises; if it stalls, today’s concessions may be remembered as another short-lived, politically driven tariff truce rather than a structural realignment of the global trading system.