India, Feb. 3 -- A decade ago, the idea of imposing tariffs on major economies to tackle problems such as illegal migration or the opioid crisis would have been dubbed outlandish. Today, it's a reality in the world's largest economy. On Saturday, Trump invoked emergency executive powers to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and another 10% on top of the existing tariffs on China. We do not know what is yet to come. Will he go ahead and slap similar tariffs on the European Union or even countries such as India? Will the affected countries retaliate? Will it trigger a full-blown trade war, stoking inflation, and jeopardising complex value chains with links to the American economy? What will all this do to future investment decisions? There is only one answer to these questions now: It is difficult to say but it is always a good idea to hope for the best even as one prepares for the worst....