Why India hit the brakes on US trade deal

When India, on the intervening night of February 21-22, informed the United States that its negotiators would not travel for the planned round of trade-pact talks on February 23-24, it was not a scheduling but a calculated pause. The decision came just days after the US Supreme Court reshaped America’s trade policy, ruling that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) did not give the president authority to impose tariffs. The 6-3 verdict, written by chief justice John G. Roberts, restored the US Congress’s primacy over taxation and tariff powers and dismantled the legal foundation of Donald Trump-era protectionism. For…