The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that even when India was staring down the barrel of a 27-per-cent tariff on most of its exports to the United States, business executives and government officials saw an upside. A New York Times dispatch to The Globe says that India's biggest economic rival, China, and its smaller competitors such as Vietnam were facing even worse. India has been pushing hard in recent years to become a manufacturing alternative to China, and it looked as if it had suddenly gained an advantage. India and its smaller rivals got 90-day reprieves, and U.S. President Donald Trump doubled down on China, boosting its tariff to 145 per cent. India has had successes. The most eye-catching one is that Foxconn, the Taiwanese contract manufacturer, has started making iPhones for Apple in India, moving some work from China. A cluster of Apple suppliers in the state of Tamil Nadu is by some estimates producing 20 per cent of the world's iPhones. Until the past few years, nearly all were made in China. Records from Tamil Nadu's main airport show that in the weeks before Mr. Trump announced his 27-per-cent tariff, outbound shipments of electronics doubled as Apple and other companies stocked up.