Modi urges Indians to only buy products made in India amid strained US ties

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
In a Sunday public address, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged citizens to favor locally made products over foreign ones, promoting a self-reliance campaign amid strained trade relations with the United States.
Reuters:
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After U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a 50% tariff on imported Indian goods, Modi has been urging use of “Swadeshi”, or made-in-India goods. His supporters have started campaigns to boycott American brands including McDonald’s, Pepsi, and Apple, which are hugely popular in India.
“A lot of products we use daily are foreign made, we just don’t know … we will have to get rid of them,” Modi said in an address to the nation ahead of Monday’s implementation of widespread consumer tax cuts. “We should buy products that are made in India,” he added.
India’s population of 1.4 billion is a major market for American consumer goods, often purchased from U.S. online retailer Amazon.com.

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MacDailyNews Take: Modi’s “negotiation tactic” is so transparent as to be nonexistent. It probably caused a decent chuckle among U.S. trade negotiators. The forthcoming U.S-India trade deal will nullify and quell such proclamations.
Apple’s iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and AirPods are all made in India. Soon, Macs will be, too.
Apple aims for 25% of global iPhone production in India by end-2025, potentially doubling to 80+ million units annually by 2026. Expansion into the full supply chain (e.g., chips, components) is underway.
Indians should not boycott Apple products, they should buy Apple products as they are increasingly made in India.
As we wrote back in April:
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The United States of America is the far and away No.1 economy on this planet, with nominal GDP of $30.34 trillion. China is a distant number two with $19.53 trillion, followed by Germany ($4.92T), Japan ($4.39T), and India ($4.27T).
If countries want unfettered access to sell their goods and services into the world’s preeminent economy, they should, at the very least, provide unfettered American access into their far lesser economies. (In pure business terms, they should actually pay for the privilege of selling in America’s rich environment).
Any country that wants to try to forgo America by keeping or increasing their import tariffs, have at it. They’ll be begging for access sooner than later.
Anyone who thinks Americans can’t make or get whatever they want/need without importing it from any other country, failed history 101.

In 2024, the EU’s nominal GDP was reported by the World Bank to be $19.423 trillion; China-sized, but still dwarfed by the American economy.

As we wrote in May:
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Here is a list of the top 5 consumer markets by country, based on household final consumption expenditure (HFCE) in U.S. dollar value (consumer spending):
1. United States: ~$18.8 trillion
2. China: ~$7.0 trillion
3. Japan: ~$2.5 trillion
4. Germany: ~$2.3 trillion
5. India: ~$2.2 trillion
Add up the 2nd – 5th consumer markets on earth and they still total $4.4 trillion less than the U.S.

Annualized estimates based on quarterly figures suggest the EU’s total HFCE for 2024 is roughly $10 trillion, though exact annual figures are not yet finalized.

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