Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran on Friday assuaged concerns of a trade war following the election of Donald Trump as the new President of US.

“External trade growth in any case is subject to vagaries of global growth more than it is subject to vagaries of restrictive trade policies elsewhere,” Nageswaran said, adding that global growth is steeped in uncertainty, and the policy stance and decisions that may be adopted by the incoming administration in US may open newer doors for India.

“We should do our homework at several levels and be prepared. But pre-emptive pessimism is premature and unwarranted,” Nageswaran added.

Nageswaran’s comments came in the wake of analysts saying that Indian industries with exposure to the US market, including steel, textiles, commodities and Information Technology could see short-term disruptions as Donald Trump implements his political promise of putting “America First”. Experts said India may need to watch out for stiffer action on the tariff front as “reciprocal tariffs” against Indian goods have been one of Trump’s prominent election pitches.

Responding to concerns around declining government capital expenditure, Nageswaran said the government’s capital expenditure for the current financial year may better the levels of the previous year. “I am confident that capex (capital expenditure) will catch up briskly and has been doing so since October. And capex for this fiscal may end up being slightly higher than the actual capex spend we had in the last fiscal as far as the Indian government is concerned,” Nageswaran said at an event in Mumbai.

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