India is China 2.0: Trump Should Reject 'Free Trade' with India

Substack ^ | May 5, 2025 | Spencer Morrison

[LibertyFound]

The average annual wage in America is $63,000 while the average annual wage in India is just $2,500—the average American earns 25x more than the average Indian. Labor is often the largest input cost for making products, accounting for approximately 30 - 35% of the cost of American manufacturing—and it’s an even higher proportion in many service industries.

If America and India traded freely, India’s low wages would undercut America’s labor market—either Americans will need to accept lower wages domestically, or the factories will relocate to India to take advantage of dirt-cheap labor.

How do we know this will happen? The exact same thing happen after China joined the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) in 2001.

In 2001 the average annual wage in America was $30,846 while the average annual wage in China was just $1,127—the average American earned 27x more than the average Chinese. What happened when American workers competed with Chinese workers? American factories moved to China and wages stagnated.

[LibertyFound]

The point of tariffs is not to move factories from China to India. The point is to move them from China AND India back to America.

We're losing the plot here.

[Strict9]

I don’t mind focusing more on india. They are more rational than the Chinese govt

[pierrem15]

Yes- it looks like the DC poohbahs are anxious to trade more American jobs and wealth for a foreign policy "victory".

We need a law requiring tariffs on manufactured goods until the trade balance is equal that applies to all countries.

[cowboyusa]

Trump just kicked Carney’s ass on live TV.🤣 It was great.

[escapefromboston]

I’m more worried about allowing Indians into America right now.

[MurrietaMadman]

I knew a rational Indian nurse a few years back. She used to come outside to the large covered patio outside the entrance to the ER when she took a break. We used to have pleasant conversations.

One day she started bad mouthing the 2nd Amendment and gun ownership. I questioned honor killings as part of Indian culture.

She had no response except to go back into the hospital and she never talked to me again.

Rational? About as rational as any other progressive liar, I guess.

[econjack]

Most people don’t understand the concept of externalities. The US has laws that control the amount of particulates that we discharge into the atmosphere. India and China do not, but we pay for it. Look at the particulates dumped into the air by India and China and compare that to the US:

https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/particulates/isobaric/250hPa/overlay=pm2.5/orthographic=-97.32,35.57,342

(You can drag the globe with your cursor.) It’s like having a public swimming pool with India and Chine and the US holding up a “No Peeing Zone” sign.

[minnesota_bound]

So our wages doubled yet prices for everything has gone way up like homes and cars and we are deeper in debt then ever before.

FTA: In 2001 the average annual wage in America was $30,846
The average annual wage in America is $63,000

[LibertyFound]

Great link! Thanks brother.