The System Holds: Trade, Climate and Culture at a Crossroads

Donald Trump’s tariff strategy has run into a constitutional wall.

In a special episode of The Core Report, Govindraj Ethiraj examines the US Supreme Court’s decision to strike down sweeping reciprocal tariffs imposed under emergency powers by the Trump administration. What appeared to be hard-edged trade policy has now been checked by institutional guardrails. The ruling limits the President’s ability to unilaterally impose global tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — reshaping the trajectory of US trade policy.

For India, the implications are immediate. Export competitiveness recalibrates. Negotiating leverage shifts. The economic logic underpinning bilateral trade concessions weakens. A uniform global tariff framework replaces discriminatory duties, narrowing distortions that had affected labour-intensive exports.

The broader message is structural: executive action can disrupt markets, but constitutional institutions ultimately define the rules of engagement.

On the other hand, In How India’s Economy Works, Puja Mehra speaks with Anoop Singh about another kind of stress test: India’s climate ambition. Even after a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court of India, targets alone do not guarantee transition. Fiscal design, regulatory coherence and state capacity will decide whether climate commitments translate into measurable outcomes — or remain aspirational.

And in The Media Room, hosted by Vanita Kohli-Khandekar, Nasreen Munni Kabir reflects on how Hindi cinema travelled across continents long before the internet shrank the world. Its endurance was not accidental. It was built on storytelling systems, distribution networks and a deep emotional grammar that allowed it to become a cultural bridge for generations.

Three very different arenas — trade policy, climate governance and cinema. One underlying question: what makes vision endure?

Because in the end, durability is never rhetorical. It is institutional.

WEEKEND EDITION

Tariff Shock Reversed: Washington Blinks, and the Trade Chessboard Resets

On Friday night, the rulebook reasserted itself.

In a decision that could redraw the recent arc of global trade tensions, the US Supreme Court ruled that the President cannot use emergency powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping reciprocal tariffs. What began as a trade skirmish dressed up as a national emergency has now been pulled back into constitutional bounds.

For India, the implications are immediate — and strategic.

Over the past months, Indian exports to the United States were staring at punitive tariffs as high as 25%, layered over existing MFN duties. Labour-intensive sectors — garments, engineering goods, small manufacturers — bore the brunt. A provisional understanding had hinted at a climbdown to 18%, contingent on concessions and a broader trade accommodation.

That architecture has now shifted.

With the reciprocal tariffs struck down, nearly 55% of India’s exports to the US — largely in labour-intensive categories — revert to a uniform regime. The new baseline: MFN tariffs plus a flat 10% global duty introduced separately. Not zero. But no longer discriminatory. The competitive distortion that briefly tilted the field is gone.

Electronics, pharmaceuticals and petroleum products remain largely insulated. Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminium and select auto components continue at elevated levels. But the broader trade reset is unmistakable.

The more consequential question is not about tariffs. It is about leverage.

India had entered trade negotiations under pressure. The logic was straightforward: absorb concessions in exchange for tariff relief. Market access, procurement commitments, purchase intentions — all were in play. Now, that calculus is under review. If the global rate is 10% for all, the urgency of a bilateral deal diminishes. Why trade structural concessions for what is already available multilaterally?

There is another dimension.

An estimated $160–175 billion in tariff collections may now face legal scrutiny. Refund claims could surface. Complex questions around pass-through, unjust enrichment and retrospective application will dominate the months ahead. Lawyers are already circling what could become a secondary marketplace for future claims. The economic aftershocks may not be confined to trade balances alone.

Yet the deeper takeaway lies elsewhere.

In an era where executive action has often raced ahead of institutional guardrails, the US system demonstrated internal correction. Courts intervened. Legislative signals aligned. The global trade order, bruised but not dismantled, found partial restoration — not from external retaliation, but from domestic constitutional process.

For India’s exporters, the immediate message is stability with a surcharge. For negotiators, it is optionality regained. And for policymakers everywhere, it is a reminder that trade strategy cannot be built solely on the volatility of personalities.

The tariff war has not ended. A 10% global duty remains. New legal pathways may yet be tested. Targeted measures could reappear.

But the asymmetry that defined the past few months has narrowed.

In trade, as in markets, certainty is currency. And for now, the premium on unpredictability has eased.

HOW INDIA’S ECONOMY WORKS

Climate Targets Are Easy. Climate Architecture Is Not.

In the latest episode of How India’s Economy Works on The Core, journalist Puja Mehra speaks with economist Anoop Singh about a structural gap that rarely makes headlines: India’s climate ambition far outpaces its institutional readiness.

India has pledged aggressive 2030 climate targets. But, Singh argues, announcing commitments is the easy part. The harder task is constructing the legal, fiscal and administrative machinery required to deliver them.

A key development frames the conversation: the Supreme Court of India recently recognised the constitutional right to be free from the adverse effects of climate change. The judgment elevates climate action from policy preference to rights-based obligation. Yet India remains one of the few major economies without a comprehensive national climate law.

Instead, climate governance is dispersed across sector-specific policies — power, transport, industry, urban development. The result: uneven implementation, weak coordination between the Centre and states, and limited accountability. Without clear statutory backing, climate finance cannot be systematically mobilised, tracked or evaluated. Singh points to the absence of climate budget tagging as a major blind spot in fiscal planning.

And yet, there are “islands of excellence.”

States such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Assam have experimented with climate action plans and institutional reforms. The question is whether these isolated efforts can evolve into a coherent national framework.

The episode ultimately asks: can India move from fragmented climate initiatives to a unified legal and fiscal architecture — before the 2030 clock runs out?

THE MEDIA ROOM

Nasreen Munni Kabir on Why Hindi Cinema Still Travels

In the latest episode of The Media Room by host Vanita Kohli-Khandekar with film historian, author and documentary filmmaker Nasreen Munni Kabir — a woman who has spent decades documenting, archiving and interpreting Hindi cinema for the world.

Before streaming platforms, before YouTube, before diaspora communities could WhatsApp film clips across continents, Kabir was already building bridges. Her landmark Channel 4 series Movie Mahal introduced British audiences to Indian cinema at a time when subtitled films were still niche. Later, her role on the board of the British Film Institute helped position Indian cinema within global film discourse.

Her core argument is deceptively simple: Hindi cinema didn’t just entertain migrants. It sustained identity.

From Shah Rukh Khan to Raj Kapoor, from Lata Mangeshkar to Zakir Hussain, her work maps how individual artistry intersects with national imagination.

Her collaborations with Gulzar and A. R. Rahman reveal something more enduring: great cinema is built on craft discipline as much as emotion.

What Today’s Filmmakers Should Notice

Kabir argues that studying film history isn’t nostalgia. It’s infrastructure.

Understanding authorship, preservation, and criticism equips creators to think beyond opening weekend numbers. It forces a longer view — one measured in decades, not days.

Hindi cinema endures not because it is loud or lavish. It endures because it encodes feeling — in story, in song, in star persona.

Listen to the full episode of The Media Room to explore how film history shapes the future of media — and why cinema remains one of India’s most powerful cultural exports.

THE CORE QUIZ

INDIA FINANCE & INNOVATION FORUM 2O26

The Pioneer presents India Finance & Innovation Forum 2026 convenes policymakers, regulators, financial institutions and industry leaders to examine India’s evolving financial architecture. Over three days, senior decision-makers will explore fiscal and monetary priorities, capital markets, digital finance and innovation-led growth through focused dialogue, networking and collaborative sessions on what’s changing, what works and what comes next.

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