New Delhi, Aug. 8 -- The shock of India facing new US tariffs as steep as 50% is severe in itself, but all the more galling for the bracket it places the country in. We're in the same unfortunate club as Brazil, with which the White House has a political bone to pick that makes its harsh tariff rate look like interference in Brazilian politics.

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'Reciprocal tariffs' in general were packaged as trade-gap bridges, but US policy has lost all coherence in a storm of arbitrary levies. What does this say of a country governed by the rule of law?

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The US has clearly turn...