US: Vivek Ramaswamy wants to expand ties with India, others, to achieve “economic independence” from China

Ohio [US]: Indian American entrepreneur and Republican presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy said that he would be looking forward to expanding relations with countries like India, as he rolled out his trade policy aimed at achieving “economic independence” from China
Ramaswamy (38) on Thursday, cited India, Israel, Brazil and Chile as countries he wants to build trade relations with in order to cut financial ties with China as per a report by New York Post.

He counted upon India, along with Israel, to remove the “pharmaceutical dependence” on China and further involve India along with Brazil and Chile in obtaining rare earth mineral imports like lithium, which is needed for semiconductors.

Addressing a crowd assembled at a plastics manufacturing plant in New Albany, Ohio, he put forth a four-point plan to counter the Chinese Communist Party through “a pro-trade approach to sensibly decoupling from China” that he says will balance economic issues with national security concerns.

Ramaswamy began his address by criticising the decision to admit China to the World Trade Organization in 2001, saying the US had “lost the plot” in assuming it could “export Big Macs and Happy Meals and somehow that was going to export our values to the CCP reported the New York Post.

“Now who’s our top adversary today? It’s not the USSR — that fell back in 1990…as some seem to forget, our top adversary today is Communist China,” he said.

Going on the same lines as his first GOP primary debate, he reiterated that “The climate change agenda is a hoax.”

“The issue has nothing to do with the climate and everything to do with letting China catch up to the US” economically, as Beijing’s greenhouse gas emissions have remained far higher than other developed nations’, the New York Post reported.

“To declare independence from China, we must declare independence from the climate change agenda here at home…I have no problem with the existence and purchase of electric vehicles. But I do have a problem with a subsidized industry that falsely tilts the scales towards China,” Ramaswamy said.

He added, “We depend on China for rare earth minerals, and mineral oil refining capacity in order to provide those electric vehicles in the United States. So when you, as taxpayers, subsidize EVs, we are actually subsidizing the Chinese Communist Party on whom we rely for the production of those EVs. The same story for the solar panels in this country.”

Ramaswamy’s plan further involves turning to countries like India, Brazil and Chile for rare earth mineral imports, many of which contain reserves of lithium needed for semiconductors, an essential component of many electronic products, as per The New York Post.

The Ohio entrepreneur’s second plank takes aim at last year’s passage of the CHIPS Act, which he called a “Green New Deal masquerading in CHIPS clothing” for having pushed renewable energy initiatives while ignoring steps to secure semiconductor supply chains.

To prevent China’s economic dominion over semiconductor manufacturing, he suggested “reopening and expanding trade relationships with our friends in Japan and South Korea,” who would also “compete” with US semiconductor manufacturers, according to The New York Post.

Ramaswamy’s third plank would be aimed at ending the “US military’s reliance” on China for strategic materials and limiting foreign entanglements, including the war in Ukraine, which he said in his prepared remarks has “exacerbated shortages in our military stockpiles.”

In his speech, Ramaswamy also took issue with the size of the US defence budget, saying the Pentagon spent “over USD 3 trillion in wars spanning Afghanistan to Iraq over the last 20 years that did not advance US interests.”

Finally, Ramaswamy pledged to cut off the “pharmaceutical dependence” on China and instead strengthen trade relationships with Israel, India and other nations.

“That same country that unleashed hell on the world with COVID-19, with the man-made virus, that same country that’s waging a one-sided, illicit Opium War lacing fentanyl into other drugs crossing the border illegally, is the same country that we depend on for 95 per cent of our imports for our over the counter medicines that we take every day. This is unacceptable,” the New York Post quoted him as saying.

“The key synthetic precursors for making fentanyl come from — you can’t make this stuff up — come from Wuhan,” he added.