CHENNAI: Makkal Needhi Maiam party founder Kamal Haasan has said that the US President Donald Trump government's 50 per cent tariff on Indian exporters was a challenge to the sovereignty of Indian livelihoods and both the Centre and state governments should come forward to provide immediate relief to exporters.
As an emergency breathing space, the governments could provide a two-year moratorium on MSME loan repayments, and a special emergency credit line.
He suggested the governments to expand guarantee covers and restore low-interest export credit, and clear all pending GST, RODTEP, and RoSCTL refunds within strict deadlines; enhance rates for the hardest-hit export lines.
The Rajya Sabha MP said temporary power-tariff concessions, freight support to open new markets, and liberalised import norms for synthetic yarns could be provided and also a single-window fast track for export compliance and refunds.
Further, the country should identify and facilitate entry into new global markets for affected sectors, he emphasised.
"Let us not treat this merely as crisis management. This must be our clarion call for a decade-long mission to secure India's place in the supply chains of tomorrow; rare earths, semiconductors, batteries, power electronics, and advanced textiles," Haasan said in a statement here on Wednesday night.
Only then will India be beyond the reach of tariffs and threats from across the oceans, he added.
"The 50 per cent US tariffs on our exporters is not about trade nor Ukraine. They are a political cudgel, aimed at shaking our resolve. When the sovereignty of Indian livelihoods is challenged, the nation must act together. I urge the Union and State governments to provide immediate relief," the MNM leader said.
He said India's resolve in ensuring energy security for the country and its proud citizens carried no price tag.
Tariffs on China came in whispers and half-measures, while on India they were wielded like hammer.
"That is the lesson for India, which Gandhiji reminded us of at the stroke of the midnight hour, Atmanirbharta is not a slogan; it is strategic insurance," Haasan noted.
He expressed solidarity with the exporters in Tiruppur, Surat, and Noida, shrimp farmers of Andhra Pradesh, gems and jewellery industry in Gujarat and Maharashtra; and steel workers, whom he said must not "bear the cost of geopolitical games.