Kolkata, India – Pankaj Chadha has been running a steel manufacturing unit in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, for the past four decades.

The 65-year-old told Al Jazeera that his company exports products mostly to the United States and Mexico, where they are used in various industries.

The recent spike in tariffs in both countries, however, has come as a crushing blow for Chadha. Before the tariffs, he had sales of roughly $5m and $8m to the US and Mexico, respectively. But those have since been halved.

US President Donald Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on India in August and soon tacked on another 25 percent as punishment for its continuing purchase of Russian oil, which, he said, was helping to fund Russia’s war on Ukraine.

On January 1, Mexico implemented steep import tariffs ranging from 5 percent to 50 percent on more than 1,400 products from non-free trade nations, including India, Brazil, China, South Korea, Russia, Indonesia and Thailand.

However, Indian businesses have put it down to Mexico safeguarding itself from US wrath over trans-shipment and supply-chain diversion – issues that businesses from countries like China, which are dealing with high US tariffs, can undertake.

Such practices could be used by the US against Mexico in the upcoming review of the trade pact the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. And this could push Mexico to align its tariff policy with US sensitivities.