Sri Lankan parliamentarian Harish Silva has urged fellow lawmakers to be respectful towards India amid its ongoing tensions with Washington over US tariff rates.
Speaking during a debate on the impact of
US tariffs, Silva said, “Let’s not talk about the US tariffs here. Don’t laugh at India. Don’t mock them when they are down because when we were down, they were the only ones to lend us a hand.”
He added that Sri Lanka had also anticipated a reduction in US tariffs to 15 per cent, mirroring India’s expectations.
“We witnessed you guys laughing, don’t laugh,” he said.
“India expected the US tariffs to come down to 15 per cent, we also expected the same,” Silva noted, emphasising the importance of maintaining respect for India in difficult times.
After imposing a staggering 50 per cent duty on Indian goods, US President Donald Trump has also ruled out any trade talks between the two countries until the tariff issue is resolved.
“No, not until we get it resolved,” Trump said in the Oval Office last week, in response to a question on whether he expects more trade negotiations with India after doubling the tariffs on Indian imports to 50 per cent.
A prominent American Congressman Representative Gregory Meeks, a Democrat, meanwhile, said Trump’s latest ‘tariff tantrum’ risks years of careful work to build a stronger US-India partnership.
Over the last few months, India and the US have held several rounds of negotiations for a bilateral trade deal, but it could not be sealed in view of sharp divergences in certain critical areas, including agriculture and dairy.
The next round of bilateral talks for an initial trade agreement was scheduled to be held on August 25 in New Delhi, two days before the 25 per cent penalty on India, which is on top of a 25 per cent tariff, for continued purchase of Russian oil kicks in.
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