US President Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump today defended his decision to impose retaliatory tariffs on foreign goods to address the massive trade imbalance with India, China and the European Union. He cited India as an example of countries imposing 100 per cent tariffs on American products.
Trump’s remarks came ahead of maiden 2+2 dialogue between India and the US next week. 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.
Experts hope that dialogue will help change the current narrative surrounding the bilateral relationship amid trade issues.
Donald Trump has repeatedly talked about high tariffs on high-end Harley-Davidson motorcycles by India, which gave way to the current trade tension between the two countries.
"We have countries where, as an example, India, they charge up as much as 100 per cent tariff. We want the tariffs removed," Trump said.
The US president, in February, had said that India’s decision to reduce tariff on Harley-Davidson motorcycles from 75 per cent to 50 per cent was not enough. He also said that it should be reciprocal as the US imposes no tax on the import of motorbikes.
Trump defended his recent decisions to impose tariffs on import of foreign products and argued that this is in retaliation to the imbalance of trade that the US has with major trading partners including India, China and the European.
"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 said.
