Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal terms US tariff as 'bullying' tactic

Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal on Friday said the United States' recent decision to impose 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods was a "bullying tactic" to control the country's economy.

The minister said that the US was trying to bully India into accepting more imports from America as "our purchasing power has increased manifold".

Balagopal said the tariffs would adversely impact the export of goods, including fish products, spices, textiles, coir products, and cashews, all of which are imported in large quantities by the US.


He said that the tariffs would also affect the taxation regime of the Indian states and adversely affect the health, education, services and other sectors as well as appointments by the Public Service Commissions.

"It is aimed at controlling the Indian economy like the British did during colonisation. We should not surrender to it. We are not a weak country or economy," he contended at a press conference here.