The reduction of import tariffs on high-end motorcycles in India has been matched by the US raising barriers on H-1B visas. A ding-dong battle has started for the reduction of tariff barriers that prevent US entry into the more lucrative field of poultry, among others, which continue to be protected, thanks to the lobbies they maintain. With claims and counter-claims on the subject of excessive and indiscriminate use of antibiotics in farming, this battle has already commenced in the poultry industry.

Does the industry really use high-end antibiotics? In all such matters, the truth is often not the issue. The pot-stirring itself matters. Will India dismantle the unusually high tariff barriers on the import of processed poultry as a sop to Trump?

Why do I believe that it will? My view hinges on geopolitical realities. Last year the Doklam skirmish stood out as the only instance of any country standing up to China. This was not a chance event. In doing so India willingly placed herself at the business end of nations opposed to Chinese neo-imperialism. 

What the world may not have realized is that Doklam was engineered by the PLA to queer the pitch forXi Xinping at the 19th CPC Congress. The PLA leaders have an axe to grind with Xi because of the massive purges he engineered in its top echelons on grounds of corruption. Xi felt that the only means of bringing Chinese GDP growth above the unacceptable 6% rate was to stem this rot. While this rate of growth may be aspired to by other nations, for China it is insufficient to control incipient social unrest and opposition to one-party rule.