Washington DC: US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that he will soon impose reciprocal tariffs on countries like India and China, asserting that the United States will charge the same tariffs these nations impose on American goods.
Trump 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."
He added, "We have never done that. We were getting ready to do it until Covid hit."
Last week, before his bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump had commented on India's tariff structure, saying "they have the highest tariffs" and "it is a hard place to do business".
Trump made the remarks during a press conference in which he was asked about the meeting of Tesla CEO Elon Musk with PM Modi.
"They met. I assume he wants to do business in India. But India is a very hard place to do business in because of the tariffs. They have the highest tariffs... It's a hard place to do business. I would imagine he met possibly because he is running a company, he is doing this as something that he has felt strongly about for a long time," Trump said.
Speaking on the issue of reciprocal tariffs, Trump highlighted India's past trade policies, citing the case of Harley-Davidson motorcycles as an example of how American companies have been forced to set up manufacturing units abroad to bypass exorbitant import duties.
"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.
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