Former G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant has said that India should never lose its strategic autonomy, never yield to pressure while negotiating trade deals with the US. He suggested that the country should look at a long-term perspective and behave in a calm and collected manner. He said India should use trade-related uncertainties as a unique opportunity to carry out very vigorous reforms in the economy. On August 6, the United States announced an additional 25 per cent tariff on all Indian imports, on top of an existing 25 per cent duty, taking the total duty to 50 per cent effective August 27.

Kant also pitched for radically improving the personal income tax on which a lot of work has already been done. US President Donald Trump's ‘dead economy’ jibe, he said India is anything but a dead economy because India is the fastest-growing large economy. He said ‘we are the fourth largest economy in the world. We will shortly be the third largest economy in the world, more than anything else, India has carried out very major structural reforms in its economy’. He suggested that the government should give a massive thrust to travel and tourism, because it is tariff proof. He said ‘we should be getting tourists from abroad, because there is no tariff’. 

Noting that India is bigger than 24 countries of Europe, he said every state of India must have its brand and every state must push for tourism. He emphasised that India needs just 12 champion states growing at 10 per cent to lift national growth to 9 per cent. He said ‘you already have growth coming from the south and west. Now the opportunity lies in the east. These are mineral-rich states. There's no reason they should not be growing at 9-10 per cent per annum’.