Washington:
While announcing his country’s “reciprocal tariffs” on those who tariff the United States, Donald Trump recalled his brief remark to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding trade ties with India, when the two leaders met in Washington recently.
“You’ve not been treating us right,” he recalled as saying to PM Modi, when he spoke about India’s high import duties. The US has now decided to reciprocate India’s “52 per cent” tariffs by charging Indian goods half of that – 26 per cent, when they are imported to the United States.
Describing tariffs by New Delhi as “very very tough”, President Trump said, “Their Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) just left (US recently)…he is a great friend of mine, but I said to him that ‘you’re a friend of mine, but you’ve not been treating us right’. India charges us 52 per cent, so we will charge them half of that – 26 per cent.”
He however, did not specify how these will be levied, or which industries would be impacted how much. The White House later said that country-specific tariffs will be over and above a “baseline tariff” of 10 per cent that the US has decided to charge on all goods that are imported into the United States.
“Due to a national emergency which has stemmed from security concerns due to persistent trade deficits, the US is imposing a baseline 10 per cent tariff that would start at 12:01am local time (9:30 am IST) on April 5, while the higher country-specific tariffs would begin from 12:01 am local time (9:30 am IST) on April 9,” the White House said.
Calling himself “kind”, President Trump said, “America will charge other countries only half of what they charge us”. This, he said, is “fair”.
Making his reciprocal tariff announcement from the White House Rose Garden as attendees cheered him, President Trump said, “For far too long, other countries have looted and plundered us, while taking advantage of our policies. But no longer. April 2nd will forever be known as Liberation Day – when America reclaimed its industries. We will now impose reciprocal tariffs on countries that tariff us – Reciprocal means we do to them, what they do to us, as simple as that.”
“By doing this we will reclaim our jobs, we will reclaim our industry, we will reclaim our small and medium scale businesses…and we will make America wealthy again. Jobs will come roaring into America now,” he added.
Some of the country-specific “discounted reciprocal tariffs” include – China (34 per cent), European Union (20 per cent), Vietnam (46 per cent), Taiwan (32 per cent), Japan (24 per cent), India (26 per cent), United Kingdom (10 per cent), Bangladesh (37 per cent), Pakistan (29 per cent), Sri Lanka (44 per cent), Israel (17 per cent).