Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], September 26 (ANI): Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday termed Bharatiya Janata Party’s foreign policy a “failure”, blaming the government for the “suffering” of India’s businesses and trade due to the tariffs imposed by the US.
Akhilesh Yadav’s harsh criticism followed the announcement by US President Donald Trump of 100 per cent tariffs on imports of branded and patented pharmaceutical drugs, effective from October 1.
“They are harming our economy constantly. And our trade is getting harmed because of the tariffs. The foreign policy of the BJP seems to be failing. It is their failure that our businesses, trade and our nation are suffering. What would our traders and businessmen do if there are 50-100% tariffs?” Akhilesh Yadav told ANI.
The 100 per cent tariffs are only applicable to patented or branded products, and will not impact generic medicines. Experts have suggested that India’s exports to the US primarily consist of generic drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), which are not covered under this tariff.
Sudarshan Jain, General Secretary of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), said, “This [100 per cent tariff on imported pharmaceutical drugs] is applicable to patented branded products manufactured outside the US. It does not apply to generics, as India supplies the US mostly with generic products. India exports around USD 10 billion worth of medicine to the US. They consist primarily of generic products and APIs. So India is not likely to be impacted by this order.”
The Indian pharmaceutical sector supplies over 50 per cent of global demand for various vaccines, 40 per cent of generic demand in the US and 25 per cent of all medicines in the UK. India’s annual drug and pharmaceutical exports touched a record USD 30 billion in FY25, bolstered by a 31 per cent year-on-year surge in March.
According to a government release, drug and pharmaceutical exports increased by 6.94 per cent from USD 2.35 billion in August 2024 to USD 2.51 billion in August 2025 alone.
Additionally, Akhilesh Yadav targeted the BJP government over the GST reforms, asking whether the government had been unaware of the negative impact of GST for the past nine years. Yadav argued that the new reforms maintain the government’s profits, as they increased GST in one sector and reduced it in another.
“It was not known to them for 9 years how the GST was harming the poor… On one hand, GST is being reduced, on the other hand, GST is being increased. Profits (of the government) are not decreasing,” the SP chief said.
The reform in the Goods and Services Tax structure, which was approved during the 56th meeting of the GST Council earlier this month, comes into effect from Monday.
The earlier four-rate system is replaced with a streamlined two-slab regime of 5% and 18%. A separate 40 per cent slab has been retained for luxury and sin goods.
Indian households are set to benefit from tax savings of up to 27 to 30 per cent under the new GST 2.0 regime, according to a report released by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Activities Destroying the Economy (FICCI CASCADE) along with the Thought Arbitrage Research Institute (TARI). (ANI)
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