They Tax Us, We Tax Them: Donald Trump Warns India Over High Tariffs

Washington: US President-elect Donald Trump reiterated his plan to impose ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on India on Monday in retaliation for the “high taxes” charged by New Delhi on imports of certain American commodities. 

With just a few days left before Trump assumed the White House, he made these remarks while responding to a question about the potential trade agreement with China. He further added that India and and Brazil were among the countries that imposed high tariffs on certain US products.

Speaking to the media, Trump said, “Reciprocal. If they tax us, we tax them the same amount. They tax us. We tax them. And they tax us. Almost in all cases, they're taxing us, and we haven't been taxing them.”

“The word reciprocal is important because if somebody charges us — India, we don't have to talk about our own — if India charges us 100 per cent, do we charge them nothing for the same? You know, they send in a bicycle and we send them a bicycle. They charge us 100 and 200. India charges a lot. Brazil charges a lot. If they want to charge us, that's fine, but we're going to charge them the same thing,” Trump added.

Responding to a question, his Commerce Secretary pick Howard Lutnick said “reciprocity” is something that is going to be a key topic for the Trump administration, he said, “How you treat us is how you should expect to be treated."

Trump Plans to Impose 25% Tariffs on Canada

In a post on Social Truth in mid-November, Trump threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if the countries didn't stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across southern and northern borders. He said he would impose a 25 per cent tax on all products entering the US from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders.

Following this, Canada is already examining possible retaliatory tariffs on certain items from the United States should President-elect Donald Trump follow through on his threat to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products, a senior official has said.

However, amid the announcement, Trudeau met Trump to raise concern over the economic problem 'tariffs' can land Canada in. He said he had an “excellent conversation” with Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club after the president-elect's threat to impose significant tariffs on two of America’s leading trade partners raised alarms in Ottawa and Mexico City .

“It is important to understand that Donald Trump, when he makes statements like that, he plans on carrying them out. There’s no question about it,” Trudeau said before his leaving for Florida.

“Our responsibility is to point out that he would not just be harming Canadians, who work so well with the United States, but he would actually be raising prices for Americans citizens as well and hurting American industry and business,” he added.
 

(Inputs from PTI)