13-oct : US President Donald Trump claimed that he utilised tariffs as a tool to resolve several international conflicts, including the tensions between India and Pakistan. He made the remarks while speaking to reporters during a press gaggle aboard Air Force One.
“…I settled a few of the wars just based on tariffs. For example, between India and Pakistan, I said, if you guys want to fight a war and you have nuclear weapons. I am going to put big tariffs on you both, like 100 per cent, 150 per cent, and 200 per cent…” Trump said.
The President explained that his threat to impose steep tariffs on both countries brought the situation under control swiftly.
“I said I am putting tariffs. I had that thing settled in 24 hours. If I didn’t have tariffs, you could have never settled that war,” he added.
Trump again reiterated his claims of brokering peace between India and Pakistan during the conflict in May, which he said was resolved through his intervention. He made similar remarks during an interview with Fox News on October 9, linking the resolution of the conflict to his tariff strategy.
While responding to a question on how he brought countries to the talking table, Trump had said, “Having the ability to use tariffs have brought peace to the world… You know I made seven peace deals.”
Expanding on his claim, he said countries had been fighting for several years with heavy casualties and insisted that his use of trade leverage helped end hostilities.
“Not in all cases but probably at least five of the seven (peace deals) we’ve done so far were by trade, that we are not going to deal with people who fight and we’re going to put tariffs on you,” Trump said.
Citing India and Pakistan as an example, he added, “You look at India and Pakistan, I said well we are not going to do business with either of you if you don’t put it together. These are two nuclear nations. Seven planes were shot down as you know and they were really at it… I said we are not going to do any business with you, we are not going to have anything to do with you, we are going to put massive tariffs on you and in both cases they said, well we’re going to start talking about it. There is tremendous amounts of money and power that we are dealing with and within 24 hours I had a peace deal that they stopped the fighting.”
Trump has time and again repeated these claims of mediating peace between India and Pakistan, asserting that his administration’s trade pressure brought stability between the two countries following heightened tensions earlier this year.
On September 21, Trump made a similar statement, saying he should be honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize for “ending seven wars.” Speaking at the American Cornerstone Institute Founder’s Dinner, he said, “We are forging peace agreements, and we are stopping wars. So we stopped wars between India and Pakistan, Thailand and Cambodia.”
“Think of India and Pakistan. Think of that. And you know how I stopped that with trade. They want to trade. And I have great respect for both leaders. But when you take a look at all of these wars that we’ve stopped,” he added.
However, India has time and again refuted the claims made by the US President, reiterating its policy that India and Pakistan bilaterally address any matter related to the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
