1. The following are excerpts from an article by Manoj Ladwa, the founder of India Inc. and chief executive of MLS Chase Group, posted on October 5th, 2018 under the headline "Trump’s ‘Tariff King’ jibe more bark than bite, we hope". (Begin excerpts) It was only last week that US President Donald Trump praised India in glowing terms, calling it a free society of a billion-plus people that has successfully pulled millions out of poverty. A week later, India is the “tariff king” that imposes high import duties on US products and, having been caught out by a wise and sagacious White House occupant, now wants a trade deal. Welcome to the world according to Trump. Frankly, I don’t quite know how to interpret him. Does he speak for effect? Does he tailor his message to suit the audience? Or does he really mean what he says?... For I have no doubts in my mind that having publicly said, soon after cutting an agreement with Canada and Mexico, that India also wants a trade deal with the US only to please him, he has left himself little wiggle room to back out. But saner counsel should tell him in private that international trade deals are not negotiated at press conferences. The grandstanding by the US President and the discourteous braggadocio on display at the media briefing will only serve to undermine the drudge work being done over many months by the US Trade Representative’s office and the Government of India. Just consider this: Trump may have been scoring brownie points with his electorate at home but as the head of arguably the most powerful government in the world, shouldn’t he have considered how his statement would be received in India? Any trade deal will have to involve give and take from both sides. But with election fever hotting up in India, it will be extremely difficult for the Narendra Modi government – and, indeed, any other government in the given circumstances – to make even the slightest concession on trade without inviting strident charges of selling out. If anything, Trump has made it almost impossible for his trade team to proceed with the negotiations. I am convinced, as, I am sure, are most of you, that the US President is not overly bothered about such nuances. He has tasted blood – having got North Korea to the negotiating table and after forcing Canada and Mexico to renegotiate and replace the two-and-a-half decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the very unimaginatively titled US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) – and now wants more of the same from trade partners such as the European Union (EU), Japan and India. Trump is playing a very high stakes game of global poker by painting himself as some sort of iconoclast-bogeyman who has no respect for set international norms and rules, or even agreements signed by his predecessors. Never mind that this is cutting the ground from under the very edifice that the US had helped design and maintain since the end of the Second World War, which has brought it and several other countries unprecedented prosperity and global influence. But despite his own falling global standing and the US’ diminishing global prestige thanks to his antics, Trump has shown a single-minded devotion to not straying from the line he has drawn on the ground. After blowing hot and blowing cold on India till now, he seems to have set his sights on what he considers a fair trade agreement with New Delhi. So, the Modi government will have to be prepared for unilateral punitive, or at the very least, additional tariffs on Indian exports as well as other restrictions for Indian goods and services entering the US market. .....Some analysts I have spoken to in the US, here in the UK and elsewhere, are pretty certain that Trump will not be re-elected in 2020. So, they advise all US trading partners to keep stalling till a more balanced and rule-respecting administration takes office..... We will have to wait with bated breath to see how this plays out. Meanwhile, we will also have to hope the US President’s next brainwave doesn’t derail the work others have already put in. (End excerpts) Source: https://indiaincgroup.com/trumps-tariff-king-jibe-more-bark-than-bite-we-hope/ 2. The proverbial idiom "The pot calling the kettle black" has the following meanings: (a) Something you say that means people should not criticize someone else for a fault that they have themselves. (b) A situation in which one person criticizes another for a fault the first person also has. Source: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/pot-calling-the-kettle-black 3. Here I coin its modern version: "The Tariff Emperor calling India a tariff king." The following sentences show the use of the new expression: (a) Don't scold me for being late. You were late for work yesterday. That's the Tariff Emperor calling India a tariff king! (b) The two politicians sling mud at each other during their election campaigns. It’s like the Tariff Emperor calling India a tariff king.
