Inside the Indian factories struck a strong 50% US tariffs

The ominous silence hangs above the N KRISHNAMURTHY production unit in Tirpur, one of the largest textile export centers in India.

There are only some of about 200 industrial sewing machines on the floor in operation, as workers are making the last of children’s orders for the season for some of the largest retailers in the United States.

At one end of the room piles of fabric samples for new designs collect dust – victims of US President Donald Trump steep 50% tariffs for Indiaready to start Wednesday.

India is a major exporter of goods, including clothes, shrimp and precious stones and jewelry, for the United States. Commercial experts say high tariffs – including a 25% penalty for buying Russian oil and weapons – are Folded with embargo on Indian goodsS

BBC correspondents visited key export centers across India to assess how trade insecurity affects business and livelihood owners.

In Tiruppur – which contributes to one -third of India of $ 16 billion (£ 11.93 billion) exports of ready -to -wear brands like Target, Walmart, Gap and Zara – there is acute concern about what the future has.

“September onwards may be nothing left,” Krishnamurti said as customers have stopped all orders.

He recently had to stop his expansion plans and bake nearly 250 new workers who were hired before the tariffs were imposed.

The time of the message worsened things, as during this period almost half of the sales are made for most export enterprises, on the eve of Christmas.

These units are now banking in the internal market and in the upcoming season of Diwali in India to survive.

In another factory that makes underwear, we saw an inventory of nearly $ 1 million, intended for stores in the US, accumulated without participants.

“We hoped India would have a commercial deal with the US. The whole production chain was frozen last month. How will I pay workers if it continued?” Gray Subramaniam, the owner of the Salov’s clothes, told the BBC.

At a 50% tariff rate, a shirt made by India, which was once sold at $ 10, will cost $ 16.4 buyers – far more expensive than $ 14.2 from China, $ 13.2 from Bangladesh, or $ 12 from Vietnam.

Even if the obligations are facilitated to 25%, India will be less competitive than its Asian peers.

To mitigate the impact, the government has announced some measures – such as stopping the duties to import raw materials. Trade conversations with other countries have also gained speed to diversify markets. But many are afraid that this is too small, too late.

“We can expect a trading deviation, with US buyers moving to Mexico, Vietnam and Bangladesh,” said Ajay Soriva from the Global Trade Research Initiative.

About 1200 km (745 miles), in an export zone in Mumbai, hundreds of workers are busy polishing and packing diamonds, part of precious stones and jewelry in India.

But the jewelry brands here are nervous about the potential impact of tariffs on their sales in September and October – when $ 3-4 billion jewelry is sent to the United States.

While the new trading partnerships in India with the United Kingdom and Australia have opened opportunities, years of effort to build a presence in the United States can be canceled for months, it is afraid of Adil anchor jewelry from creation, which sells 90% of its diamond jewelry in the United States.

It works on thin margins of 3-4%, so even a 10% additional tariff rate is difficult to maintain. “Who can absorb these tariffs? Even US traders will not be able to (this),” an anchor told the BBC.

Anchor depletes its stones from Surat City in the neighboring state of Gujarat. In the Surat World Center for Diamond Cutting and Polishing, crisis is boiled Long before the tariffs are hit Due to the decrease in global demand and competition from laboratory diamonds.

And now the tariffs are a double bite.

US customers have disappeared and factories, which maintain nearly five million livelihoods, now only work 15 days each month. Hundreds of contract workers have been sent on indefinite leave.

Inside the slightly illuminated polishing of diamonds on the outskirts of the city, rows of dusty, unused tables extend into silence. Nearby broken processors lie scattered.

“This place is buzzing,” a worker says. “Many people have been fired recently. We don’t know what will happen to us.”

Shalesh Manguki, who built the unit, says he once hired 300 workers. Now there are only 70. The number of diamonds broadcast each month has dropped from 2000 to only 300.

Local trade union leaders such as Bhavesh Tank say that workers here face “wage reduction, forced leave and contraction of monthly income”.

Meanwhile, many shrimp farmers in India are considering moving to other products to survive when struck. India is one of the largest shrimp exporters to the world – and the United States is a major market.

Among other obligations, the total shrimp tariffs are now over 60% – a body stroke for the sector, as prices have dropped by $ 0.60-0.72 per kilogram as the rates have been announced for the first time and is expected to fall after 50% of the percentage.

“This is the peak season for US buyers preparing for Christmas and New Year’s sales. Farmers are just starting their new cultivation cycle here. Trump’s tariffs have caused great confusion. We can’t make any decisions,” said Tota Jagadez, BBC exporter.

The hatchery operators say that as a result, they have significantly reduced the production of shrimp larvae.

“We have previously produced an average of 100 million shrimp larvae a year. Now we don’t even reach 60-70 million,” said Ms Varma of SriMannarayana Hatcheries in the city of Weeravasaram.

All this can directly affect the livelihood of half a million shrimp farmers and another 2.5 million indirectly, according to estimates.

In a country that is already trying to make a long -term job creation crisis, these are anxious figures.

So far, the impasse between India and the US is ongoing. If nothing else, the environment for more commercial negotiations has deteriorated significantly over the past weeks.

It is reported that the last round of trade negotiations that were to start in Delhi this week, and US officials have doubled from their criticism of India, accusing it of coziness in Beijing and being a “laundry” for Russia.

“Conversations with the future of India-Jaste now depend to a large extent on the Trump Administration’s priorities, as well as those who participate in Russia and China, among others,” Gopal Poddir told the Asia Group Advisory Company to the BBC.

“For politicians in India and business leaders, the mantra will have to be: increasing independence, diversifying and does not leave a Let’s stone.”

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