In 2025, India’s export engine faced its toughest stress test yet. The US decision to impose 50 percent tariffs on key Indian exports has triggered economic shockwaves, strained bilateral ties, and revived debates on self-reliance and strategic autonomy. As India recalibrates, balancing diplomacy, WTO engagement, and domestic manufacturing, the episode exposes deeper questions about economic resilience and the future of India’s trade in a fragmenting global order. This session will explore what it will take to turn this moment of pressure into an opportunity to shape a new trade strategy for 2026 and beyond.

How deep is the real impact of the US tariffs on India’s export competitiveness, and what structural shifts are needed to build trade resilience? How can India engage the US through negotiation while simultaneously strengthening alternative trade and investment corridors with BRICS, ASEAN, and the Global South? With trade wars increasingly used as tools of foreign policy, what balance should India strike between economic pragmatism and geopolitical signalling?

Moderator

Laveesh Bhandari, President and Senior Fellow, Centre for Social and Economic Progress, New Delhi

Speakers

Sriparna Pathak, Associate Fellow, Motwani Jadeja Institute for American Studies, Haryana

Sankalp Gurjar, Assistant Professor, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Maharashtra

Pritam Banerjee, Senior Research Fellow, Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, New Delhi

Shreya Upadhyay, Non-Resident Fellow, Kalinga Institute of Indo-Pacific, Odisha