United States President Donald Trump on Friday doubled down on his plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on India and said they were coming “soon”. Trump also asserted that the United States will charge the same tariffs India and other nations like China impose on American goods.
“They charge us, we charge them,” Trump said.
Addressing a press conference, he said, “We will soon impose reciprocal tariffs -- they charge us, we charge them. Whatever a company or a country, such as India or China, charges, we want to be fair; hence, reciprocal.”
The US President also revealed that he wanted to impose reciprocal tariff on India during his first term until the coronavirus pandemic hit.
“We have never done that. We were getting ready to do it until Covid hit,” he said. Trump had earlier said that India has the highest tariff structure and the country was hard to do business.
“Traditionally, India is right at the top of the pack pretty much. There are a couple of smaller countries that are actually more but India charges tremendous tariffs. I remember when Harley Davidson couldn't sell their motorbikes in India because of the fact that in India - the tax was so high, the tariff was so high, and Harley was forced to build,” he had said, US Network Pool via Reuters reported.
As Donald Trump keeps threatening to impose reciprocal tariff on India, the Congress party on Friday asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi “kept smiling” and did not take action against the decision of the US President to impose reciprocal tariffs in the country and end BRICS.
Commenting on Trump's harsh comments and the Modi government's `weak' reaction, the Congress leader, Pawan Khera. said, “He was not invited to Trump's swearing-in ceremony, but he went there anyway. Trump said he would impose reciprocal tariffs, but Modi was just smiling. Modi came from the US after hearing Trump's threat... Trump said that he would end BRICS, but Modi was still smiling.”
“America's Adani, Elon Musk, called F-35 fighter jets junk. The same is being imposed on India, and Modi was just smiling. This happened in the US and they are telling us that we took money from US aid to destabilise them,” Pawan Khera said.
(By arrangement with livemint.com)
