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It may not be easy, given India's long and complicated relationship with trade barriers and tariffs.

China has said it will "fight to the end" rather than capitulate to what it sees as US coercion, and has already raised its own trade barriers against the US in response.

Shapiro said there were times when trade barriers could be justified, like to bolster the defence industry or apply pressure on other countries to reduce their tariffs on the US.

He pledged that his nation – which has been slotted for tariffs of 17% – would drop its trade barriers and move to eliminate its trade surplus with the US.

The equation was simplistically designed to target those countries with surpluses, not those with recognisable quantifiable trade barriers.