In what is expected to upset New Delhi after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent successful visit to Washington, US President Donald Trump targeted India and other countries on import duties and announced reciprocal tariffs from April 2.
In a speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, he specifically mentioned Indian tariffs on automobile imports, saying, “India charges us auto tariffs higher than 100%”.
The US President said the reciprocal tax will kick in on April 2. He said that the US has been ripped off for decades by nearly every country on earth and vowed not to “let that happen any longer.”
”Under the Trump administration, you will pay a tariff and in some cases a rather large one. Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades and now it’s our turn to start using them against those other countries. On average the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Mexico and Canada have you heard of them and countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs than we charge them. It’s very unfair. India charges us auto tariffs higher than 100 percent,” the American leader said.
There was no immediate reaction from India.
Trump also spoke about the tariffs imposed by the European Union, China, Brazil and Mexico and announced that the US will impose tariffs on other nations based on what they are doing to his country.
“China’s average tariff on our products is twice what we charge them. And South Korea’s average tariff is four times higher. Think of that four times higher and we give so much help militarily and in many other ways to South Korea. But that’s what happens, this is happening by friend and foe,” he said.
Stressing that the system is “not fair to the US”, Trump said, “This system is not fair to the United States and never was. And so on April 2nd, I wanted to make it April 1st, but I didn’t want to be accused of April Fool’s Day. That’s not — this one day was — cost us a lot of money. But we’re going to do it in April. I’m a very superstitious person. April 2nd, reciprocal tariffs kick in. And whatever they tariff us, other countries, we will tariff them.”
The US President also vowed to Tax the countries who were taxing the US and claimed that the US had been ripped off for years by every country on Earth.
“That’s reciprocal, back and forth. Whatever they tax us, we will tax them. If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we will do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market. There’s a lot of that, too. They don’t even allow us in their market.
“We will take in trillions and trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before. I did it with China, and I did it with others. And the Biden administration couldn’t do anything about it because there was so much money. They couldn’t do anything about it. We have been ripped off for decades by nearly every country on Earth, and we will not let that happen any longer,” he said.
Trump said that his administration has accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations in four or eight years and “we have just started.” He stated that the US is on the “verge of a comeback, the likes of which has never witnessed.”