Donald Trump accuses India of charging 100 per cent tariff on imports from US

As the two-plus-two dialogue between India and US is underway, US president Donald Trump accused the centre of charging as high as 100 per cent tariff on import of American products.

Trump said, “We have countries where, as an example, India, they charge up as much as 100 per cent tariff. We want the tariffs removed”.

In response to his recent decisions to impose tariffs on the import of foreign products, Trump defended by arguing that this is in retaliation to the imbalance of trade that the US has with major trading partners including China, the European Union and India.

Recollecting his conversation with G-7 leaders in Canada recently, he said, “What I would like to do and what I offered at the G7, you remember, I said let’s drop all tariffs and all barriers,” he added. “Is everybody OK with that? And nobody said yes. I said wait a minute folks, you’re complaining. No tariffs and no barriers, you’re on your own, let’s do it. And it was like they couldn’t leave the room fast enough,

While talking to the reporters at the White House he said, “Other countries are negotiating (with the US). Without tariffs, you could never do that. If they don’t want to negotiate, then we’ll do the tariffs”.

“Just remember, we’re the bank. We’re the bank that everybody wants to steal from and plunder and can’t be that way anymore. We lost USD 500 billion last year with China. We lost USD 151 billion with the European Union, which puts up great barriers so that our farmers can’t trade,” he continued.

“We can’t send farm products in for the most part. It’s very hard to send cars in,” he said.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be in the US for talks with their American counterparts Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis. India and the US will hold their first two-plus-two dialogue next week.

(Also read: China vows fast response to US tariffs on imports )

Image Source – Vox