Former United States President Donald Trump on Thursday said that India imposed the highest tariffs on foreign goods and vowed to introduce a reciprocal tax if he was re-elected.
The presidential election in the United States is scheduled to take place on November 5. Trump is the Republican Party’s presidential candidate this year. He was the president of the United States between 2017 and 2021.
In his economic policy speech in Detroit, Trump said that “reciprocity” will be an important element of his economic plan to “make America extraordinarily wealthy again”.
“It’s a word that’s very important in my plan because we generally don’t charge tariffs,” Trump said. “I started that process, it was so great, with the vans and the small trucks, etc. We really don’t charge. China will charge us a 200% tariff. Brazil is a big charger. The biggest charger of all is India.”
Trump said that the United States has a “great relationship” with India and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “But they probably charge as much,” he said.
“I mean, I think they probably charge more than, in many ways, China,” Trump told members of the Detroit Economic Club. “But they do it with a smile. They do it... Sort of a nicer charge. They said, thank you so much for purchasing from India.”
Trump has voiced concerns about India’s trade ties with the United States on several occasions in the past as well.
On September 17, Trump called India a “very big abuser” of the trade relationship with his country.
In August 2023, he claimed that India imposes excessively high tax rates on American products, and said that he would introduce reciprocal taxes if he were to come to power in 2024.
Recalling his conversation with officials of American motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson in 2019-’20, Trump said on Thursday: “I said, how’s business? Good, good. What are the bad countries? Well, India is very tough. And they gave me some others. Why? Tariffs. I said, what are they? And they said like 150%, some massive amount.”
Trump said that Harley-Davidson was encouraged to build a manufacturing facility in India in exchange for tariff relief. “They said, if you go there and build your plant, we’re not going to charge you anything,” Trump said. “I said I don’t like that. And I see they went, they [Harley-Davidson] built the plant, and now they do their business with India.”
In February 2019, India had slashed the customs duty on imported motorcycles such as Harley-Davidson to 50% after Trump called it “unfair” and threatened to increase the tariff on import of Indian bikes to the United States. Trump had responded at the time saying that the rate was still “unacceptable”.
Three months later, Washington had terminated the designation of India as a beneficiary developing country under the Generalized System of Preferences Programme, claiming that India had not assured the US that it would “provide equitable and reasonable access to its markets”. Trump was the president of the United States at the time.
Under the programme, certain products can enter the United States duty-free if beneficiary developing countries meet the eligibility criteria established by its Congress.
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