New Delhi, Aug. 28 -- America's punitive tariff has kicked in. It is now time to take a step back and calmly consider India's best way forward in dealing with Donald Trump's America, keeping in view the fact that Indo-US economic and geopolitical partnerships long precede the current US president and will continue after him.

On the immediate issue of US tariffs, setting aside exempted items, about 70% of Indian exports to the US will be impacted by the 50% tariff rate. That works out to about 7.4% of total Indian exports and less than 1.6% of India's GDP. Estimates suggest that the adverse impact on India's GDP growth would be to the tune of 0.5% or less.

In other words, the macroeconomic impact of the 50% tariff will be quite limited....