Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 8 (PTI) Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal on Friday said the United States' recent decision to impose 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods was a "bullying tactic" to control the country's economy.

The minister said that the US was trying to bully India into accepting more imports from America as "our purchasing power has increased manifold".

Balagopal said the tariffs would adversely impact the export of goods, including fish products, spices, textiles, coir products, and cashews, all of which are imported in large quantities by the US.

He said that the tariffs would also affect the taxation regime of the Indian states and adversely affect the health, education, services and other sectors as well as appointments by the Public Service Commissions.

"It is aimed at controlling the Indian economy like the British did during colonisation. We should not surrender to it. We are not a weak country or economy," he contended at a press conference here. PTI HMP HMP ADB

Trade tariffs criticised as bullying; warned to harm exports, state finances and public service appointments. The US imposition of elevated import tariffs is characterised as a trade tariff measure affecting bilateral trade flows and framed as coercive. The minister warns of adverse consequences for export sectors (fish, spices, textiles, coir, cashews), disruption to state taxation and revenues, and negative effects on public spending areas and Public Service Commission appointments, asserting resistance to externally imposed constraints on economic sovereignty.