India: Hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk as 50% US tariff takes effect
"‘In a nightmare’: India braces for big layoffs as Trump’s tariffs bite", 7 August 2025
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Gupta sources and exports garment accessories...to major global brands. But punishing tariffs imposed by United States President Donald Trump have brought Gupta’s business to its knees.
On Wednesday morning, India woke up to 50 percent tariffs imposed on its goods sold to the US...
In the fashion world, the cycle runs a year ahead...So, the hovering uncertainty in the market has “hampered the work badly”, leaving a “big dent”, he said. Up to 40 percent of his business is in the US market...
...analysts and economic observers say the tariffs could devastate key export-driven sectors of the Indian economy, with hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk...
Textiles, gems, jewellery, carpets and shrimp are some of India’s biggest exports to the US – and are expected to be among the worst hit by the tariffs.
K Anand Kumar, who manages shrimp exporting company Sandhya Marines and employs nearly 3,500 workers...said that his business is on the verge of collapse...
“The shrimp industry is a very highly labour-intensive sector, with small farmers,” said Kumar, who also leads the seafood export association’s Andhra Pradesh chapter. Taking everyone into account, Kumar said, nearly two million people are associated with shrimp exports.
Kumar said more than 50 percent of those workers will bear the direct brunt of Trump’s tariffs.
“We are already laying off because we can’t keep paying salaries with no orders in line for us,” Kumar told Al Jazeera. “The small farmers, who peel the shrimp, will be worst affected because there is no work now to employ them.”...
“It is like being in a nightmare,” Kumar said, “where you do not know what new, random tariff number you wake up to next.”...
Tiruppur’s earnings in US dollars have earned it the name of ‘Dollar City’. The world’s top fashion brands, including Zara and Gap, source clothes from here.
“Wherever margins are lower, the production has been halted altogether,” he said....He said about 150,000 workers stand to lose their jobs due to Trump’s tariffs in Tiruppur..
“The government is letting us get punched in one eye to save the other eye,” said Elangovan. “A 50 percent tariff is practically an embargo on Indian goods.”