India must consider CPTPP membership amid global trade uncertainties

In Trump 2.0's uncertain trade landscape, India must act now to secure its place in the open, rules-based, and potentially largest trade bloc in the world

The recent statements by President-elect Donald Trump about imposing higher tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada cast a shadow over two important aspects of global trade — friend-shoring and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The former has clear implications for all US allies that may have assumed they would get an easier pass through the transactional bilateralism characteristic of Mr Trump’s tariff hikes. The latter reveals a review and perhaps even an unravelling of institutions and legislation under Trump 2.0, even if they have been crafted to serve US interests in the past.  Higher tariffs on US and