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SRINAGAR: Gulzar Ahmad Bhat, a former carpet weaver in India’s Jammu and Kashmir region, now sells tea on the shores of the scenic Dal Lake, abandoning his craft of 35 years after increased US tariffs left him unable to afford his children’s school fees and medicine for his family of six.
Thousands of Indian artisans and weavers have been battered by US President Donald Trump’s move in August to double tariffs to 50 percent on Indian goods. Bhat, 49, hired a weaver to finish his last carpet before he laid down his tools.
“This profession is dying,” he told Reuters, days before he switched occupations.
The US buys nearly 60 percent of India’s handmade carpets, according to industry estimates.
The Himalayan region of Kashmir, with a handicraft industry that, according to the Jammu and Kashmir Industry Chamber, employs about 400,000 people, is known for its Persian-style tufted and knotted varieties.
Indian carpet and handicraft exports fell more than 16 percent in September from a year earlier, according to data from the trade ministry, forcing small manufacturers to cut jobs and shelve expansion plans.
“Business is slowing down because of the increase in US tariffs ... many workers are losing jobs and shifting to other work, causing a loss of traditional skills,” said Mujtaba Qadri of M&K Exports, which sells shawls and rugs — mainly to the US

A trade ministry official said New Delhi is trying to help affected exporters with financial incentives and by getting them to sell to new markets. But local exporters warned that this could take time.
The tariffs are affecting the peak export season from October to December and winter orders are getting stuck, leaving unsold goods in warehouses while threatening to wipe out an entire business cycle.
Third-generation carpet maker Mohammed Yaqoob Bafanda, 40, says the tariffs are just the latest blow to an already struggling industry.
His family business has shrunk from 100 handlooms during his father’s time to around 20 now, with the number of weavers also dropping from 300 to only “four or five,” he said.
“If a 50 percent tax continues, this industry will collapse,” Bafanda said. “I have 40 to 50 carpets in stock and no buyers.”

CHRISINAU: Moldova’s pro-EU President Maia Sandu nominated economist and businessman Alexandru Munteanu as prime minister on Friday after her ruling party won a decisive victory in parliamentary elections last month.
The Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) won 55 of the 101 seats, enough to form a government on its own, and keeping the ex-Soviet country on its pro-European path.
The vote in the country of 2.4 million was marred by allegations of Russian interference, a claim Moscow denied.
Sandu has tapped Munteanu in a bid to boost the economy of one of Europe’s poorest countries, which lies between war-ravaged Ukraine and European Union member Romania.
“Following consultations with parliamentary factions, today I signed the decree appointing Mr. Alexandru Munteanu as candidate for the office of prime minister of the Republic of Moldova,” Sandu said in a Facebook post.
Parliament is expected to confirm Munteanu in a vote next week.

- Political novice -

Munteanu, 61, has no prior political experience, and has made few public appearances.
In 2016, he founded a company managing investments in Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova.
He lived for several years in Ukraine before moving to Bucharest after Russia’s 2022 invasion. He holds Moldovan, Romanian and American citizenship.
In the past he has worked, like Sandu, at the World Bank.
He was also a university professor, who taught outgoing Prime Minister Dorin Recean, who gave up and quit politics.
In a TV interview last week, Munteanu said he was “irritated” when he heard people describe Moldova as one of Europe’s poorest countries.
“I came to help,” Munteanu said, “and will make every effort for us to join the European Union by 2028.”
Moldova applied for EU membership after the Ukraine war started and accession talks began last year.
Munteanu has a master’s degree in economic policy management from Columbia University in New York and one in physics from Moscow State University.
Pro-Russian opposition Socialist leader, Igor Dodon, called Munteanu “a professional” and “a good economist,” but said the party will not vote for him.
“Economics and politics are very different things,” Dodon said.
Political analyst Nicolae Negru told AFP that Munteanu’s nomination shows a switch of focus from security to the economy in Moldova.
“The citizens of Moldova have opted for the European Union and that automatically means that they have opted for peace and prosperity. The new government must ensure this and must respond to voters’ expectations,” Negru said.