As the world reels from the impact of United States (US) President Donald Trump's tariff war, rubber producers in India are bracing for potential cuts in their production. The US is by far India's largest market for vulcanized rubber exports, trade data shows.
In the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), India exported around $602 million worth of vulcanized rubber worldwide of which the US's share was around 22 per cent or close to $132.40 million.
According to sources tracking the rubber trade, bulk of exports are in the form of vulcanized rubber, which are then hived off into several products, including tyres and sent back to India.
"The major worry is that the import tariff on Turkey has been imposed at 10 per cent, which is India's biggest competitor in the US market", Shashi Singh, President of All India Rubber Industries Association, told Business Standard.
According to Singh, this would mean that the US markets would be flooded with rubber from Turkey while our exports would be outpriced. "Already, some of our big buyers in the US are advising us to suspend production for some time as first they want to exhaust the existing stocks", the official explained. Only when old stocks are fully exhausted, there is fresh demand.
The crisis in the domestic rubber industry due to US tariffs is just one of the many across several sectors facing an uncertain future due to the reciprocal tariffs. Sectors like seafood are also facing the heat from the reciprocal tariffs. Farmers' bodies are gearing up to protest. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), which organized the year-long farmers' protest at Delhi borders against the farm laws in 2020, has called for a General Council meeting on April 21 in the national capital to decide the future course of action.
The tariff impact and other related developments could also come up for discussion, sources said. According to sources, the top leadership of SKM is of the opinion that the farmers' groups should firm up a strong stand against any attempt by the US to push Indian growers into a corner and also any move by the Central government to offer concessions which could harm the interest of farmers. The All Indian Kisan Sabha (AIKS), in a statement issued a few days back had said that it has geared up all its units across the country to organized mass protests against any attempt 1o allow import of cheap American agriculture products.