US President Donald Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro has shared a post by Conservative commentator Jack Poso in which Poso called for tariffing foreign remote workers. Navarro is in the middle of a major row owing to his consecutive statements on India in the context of Trump’s 50% tariff — taking into account India’s purchase of Russian oil. Navarro fired off many statements in recent days calling India the ‘maharaja of tariffs’ as he justified Trump’s punitive measures on India. “India is the maharaja of tariffs. They have the highest tariffs in the world. They export us a bunch of stuff. So, who gets hurt? Workers in America, taxpayers, Ukrainians. Modi is a great leader. I don’t understand why he is getting into bed with Putin and Xi Jinping when India is the biggest democracy in the world. I would simply say this to Indian people to understand what is going on here. You have got Brahmins profiteering at the expense of the Indian people, and we want that to stop,” Navarro said, inviting a volley of criticism as Brahmins in India and the concept of Brahmins in the US are not the same. In the US, the ‘Brahmin’ refers to the rich people.
‘All outsourcing should be tariffed’
Jack Poso floated the idea of tariffing foreign remote workers who are working for US companies from their own country. “Countries must pay for the privilege of providing services remotely to the US the same way as goods. Apply across industries, leveled as necessary per country,” Poso posted. US does not have any tariffs on services, but if the US imposes tariffs on services, it will impact major US businesses that rely on remote workers. Other countries could challenge such a measure at the World Trade Organization (WTO), since it may violate free-trade principles for services. Countries with large outsourcing industries would likely retaliate with tariffs on U.S. tech exports or restrictions on US companies hiring there.