NEW DELHI: Hotel owners in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu have announced a statewide boycott of American beverage products across their properties, following the US move to impose steep tariffs on Indian exports.
Last month, as a part of his escalating global trade war, US President Donald Trump hiked the total duty on Indian exports to 50 percent — the highest in Asia and one of the greatest ever imposed on a major trading partner by any American administration.
As India braces for the tariff’s impact, which is expected to reduce its gross domestic product growth by up to 1 percentage point, the Tamil Nadu Hotel Owners Association wants to encourage its members — who own 100,000 hotel restaurants across the state — to stop contributing to the US economy.
Venkada Subbu, the association’s president, who announced the boycott campaign on Wednesday, told Arab News the hotels are preparing to enforce it in the next two weeks.
“This is the first step. We will implement it here. Then we are going to take it to all-India levels,” Subbu said.
