Will Trump’s
tariffs on various countries stoke nationalism around the world? Some might
even be prepared to say that this is Trump’s intention in a grand 4D chess move
to break the power of the globalist clown world elites. But whether or not it
is intended, it appears to be having that effect,
“Prime
Minister Modi has called on Indians to buy more domestically-made products
US
President Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs on most imports from India came into
effect on Wednesday.
The
US first imposed 25% tariffs on the country in early August, as New Delhi and
Washington could not arrive at a trade agreement. Trump then announced an
additional 25% on India effective August 27 for New Delhi’s continued purchases
of Russian oil…
…“Economic
selfishness is on the rise globally and we must not sit and cry about our
difficulties, we must rise above and not allow others to hold us in their
clutches,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday
He
called for increased self-reliance within the South Asian country. “All of us
should follow the mantra of buying only ‘Made in India’ goods,” Modi said,
while also encouraging shopkeepers to prominently display signs promoting
Indian goods.
He
acknowledged that India may face increased pressure from the tariffs, but
stated that the country is willing to endure it.”[1]
Modi is doing
the right thing here. Firstly, India is a rising economic power and it will
increasingly become a lucrative market for foreign nations to seek to invest
and sell in. So, breaking from reliance on selling to the US will have a long-term
positive effect for India. Secondly, being self-reliant is the proper response
to tariffs. These tariffs are coming in part as a result of secondary sanctions
being done by the US against Russia. But the proper response by an economy is
to wean itself from reliance on foreign goods and foreign labour. This will ensure
going forward that their economy is less vulnerable to foreign interference by
things like sanctions and tariffs.
The sanctions
war on Russia has had precisely this effect. Russia’s economy has grown markedly
even in the face of sanctions, and indeed in large part because of them,
“Russia’s
budget revenue surged to a record high in December, even as the United States
imposed fresh sanctions targeting Moscow’s banking sector in an effort to
disrupt foreign trade payments and reduce export proceeds.
The
Finance Ministry reported total revenue of more than 4 trillion rubles ($40
billion) last month, a 28 per cent increase compared to the same period in the
previous year.
According
to Bloomberg calculations based on government data, it was the highest monthly
revenue recorded since January 2011.
The
spike in revenue came despite Western sanctions designed to choke off funding
for Russia’s war in Ukraine. US and allied measures have focused on restricting
revenues from the country’s energy sector and the banks supporting it.
However,
income from oil and gas soared by 33 per cent in December from a year earlier
and rose by 26 per cent for the full year of 2024, bolstered by taxes,
dividends, and economic growth.”[2]
That does not
mean there are no issues in the Russian economy. Their economy has boomed in
large part because of government spending on defense,[3] making it currently very defense spending reliant. However, this is not the
negative thing that many people have sought to make it out to be. Simply because the
goal of these sanctions was not to make Russia’s economic boom dependent on
their military spending, but rather to crush their economy and bring them to
heel and it has not had this effect at all. Quite the opposite in fact.
This is what
focusing on self-reliance can do for a nation. It allows it to resist being
crushed by things like sanctions and tariffs and allows their population to be
productive in the face of international efforts to sabotage your economy.
Contrast this
with Australia. Australia’s economy is heavily dependent on importing foreign
workers and trading with foreign nations. Australia makes far less than it used
to, because of the Lima
agreement, and often we send our resources overseas to be sold back to us
as building products and other products. We are in a highly vulnerable position
when it comes to sanctions and tariffs because of this dependence on foreign trade, even
though we are every bit as resource rich as Russia and have a highly advanced
and educated population. If China wanted to they could easily bring our economy
to heel, as the United States has done with many nations over the decades.
The upshot of
all this, though, is that things are changing. The polarization of the world
into a multipolarity of regional powers is causing nations to pullback from
reliance on other nations. Some of this is pre-emptive, like it was in Russia
which prepared for such sanctions for over a decade, and some of it is by
necessity like in India’s case which is reading the changing of the wind and
adjusting how it does things. But all of this is causing nations to wake up to
their sovereignty again, and this is a positive thing.
I don’t think
that this is Trump’s intention, I believe he genuinely wants to keep the US at
the top of the military and economic pile for as long as possible, without
using war as much as some of his opponents in the US would like him to. However,
whether it is intentional or not, his policies are increasing nationalism
across the globe. As Modi says, “Economic selfishness is on the rise globally
and we must not sit and cry about our difficulties, we must rise above and not
allow others to hold us in their clutches,…” What Modi calls “economic
selfishness” should more accurately be called economic national self-interest.
Nations have an interest in making sure their economy serves their own people, not foreign nations. Resource rich nations have an advantage in this area.
Now, if we
could just get a 50% tariff on foreign workers being imported into our country
to stop them competing with Australian workers, things could really begin to be
looking up.
List of
References
[2] FP
Staff, 2025, https://www.firstpost.com/world/how-does-russias-economy-keep-booming-despite-wests-sanctions-13855438.html
[3]
Ibid.
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