US trade chief says tariffs on India, 59 others unlikely to impact American economy
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Donald Trump administration’s new tariffs on 60 trading partners, including India, over alleged failures to enforce forced labour bans are unlikely to have any additional economic impact, reported Reuters. He said that the new duties are largely tariff rates already in place.
Speaking to Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier” Greer said the latest tariffs, imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, apply to a smaller group of countries than the earlier temporary universal tariff and therefore should not significantly change the economic outlook or influence the Federal Reserve’s policy decisions.
“Well, I don’t think it has an impact at all,” Greer said when asked whether the tariffs could affect the Fed’s monetary policy decisions. “Now we have a set of tariffs, it’s on a smaller set, it’s not the whole world. A lot of the rates are pretty similar, so it should not have any economic impact that’s different from what we’ve been experiencing,” he added.
The latest tariffs impose duties of 10% to 12.5% on imports from 60 countries that the US says have failed to effectively prohibit goods produced with forced labour. Although the duties cover fewer countries than the earlier temporary universal tariff, US trade officials say they still apply to 99.4% of US imports, reported Reuters.
Greer added that the Office of the US Trade Representative is nearing the end of another Section 301 investigation into excess industrial capacity involving 16 major trading partners, including China, Vietnam, Mexico and the European Union. He said the administration hopes to complete the investigation soon and could propose additional tariffs.
Trump administration says tariffs will help economy
Earlier in the day, President Donald Trump also defended the new tariffs, saying they would encourage investment in the United States rather than slow economic growth. Speaking to Fox News, Trump said the latest duties achieve the same goal as the tariffs previously imposed under emergency powers.
“No, because it’s bringing hundreds of billions of dollars,” Trump said when asked whether the tariffs would hurt the economy. “It’s a shame that I have to go a harder way for the tariffs because the Supreme Court, in a very close decision, ruled against me,” he added.
“Now, I have other ways of doing the same thing, but it’s a more cumbersome way of doing it. But the tariffs have made this country a fortune. It made the country rich,” he said.
Trump said that tariffs have encouraged companies to expand manufacturing inside the United States instead of producing goods overseas. Referring to his visit to a General Motors plant in Michigan, he said, “The tariffs have saved General Motors.”
He also spoke about the investment in the semiconductor sector, saying, “What I’ve done to the auto business, what I’ve done to the chip business, we have chip companies now building hundreds of billions of dollars worth of chip plants.”
Trump further claimed that Toyota had decided to expand production in the United States to avoid tariffs.
“Toyota just left Mexico. They’re building USD 12 billion worth of plants in the United States, all because they want to avoid tariffs. They have no tariffs if they build their product here,” he said.
What did Trump say about India and Pakistan?
During the interview, Trump also repeated his claim that tariff threats helped prevent several international conflicts from escalating, including tensions between India and Pakistan following Operation Sindoor in 2025. “The threat of tariffs stopped India and Pakistan from going into a nuclear war,” Trump told Fox News.
Meanwhile, India has always said that the understanding to stop hostilities with Pakistan followed direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two countries after four days of military clashes triggered by India’s strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir following the Pahalgam terror attack.