Want reciprocal tax on India to match tariffs on US exports: Trump

March 03, 2019 09:04

India is a very high-tariff nation, United States President Donald Trump alleged on Saturday, stating that he wants a reciprocal tax or at least some kind of tax.

"India is a very high-tariff nation. They charge us a lot," Trump said in his address to the Conservative Political Action Conference in the Maryland suburb of Washington DC.

In his speech that lasted for more than two hours, Trump touched a wide range of issues including domestic, global and bilateral relationship with countries like India.

Referring to his often-cited example of the iconic Harley-Davidson motorcycles, he said, "When we send a motorcycle to India, it's a hundred per cent tariff. They charge 100 per cent when India sends a motorcycle to us, we brilliantly charge them nothing."

"So, I want a reciprocal tax or at least, I want to charge a tax. It's called the mirror tax, but it's reciprocal," Trump asserted.

Early this year, at a White House event to announce his support for reciprocal tax, Trump had said he was satisfied with the Indian decision to reduce the import tariff on Harley-Davidson motorcycles from 100 per cent to 50 per cent. "Even this is not enough, this is okay," he had said.

"Look at motorcycles as an example. (In) India, it was 100 per cent. I got them down to 50 per cent, just by talking for about two minutes. It's still 50 per cent vs 2.4 per cent (on imported motorcycles to the US). Again, other than that, it's a very fair deal," the president had told reporters at the White House on January 24.

On Saturday, he used the Indian example of how other countries were imposing high taxes on American products and now it was time for the US to impose a reciprocal tax. To prove his point, Trump said, he was using India as an example.

"But India is a very high-tariff nation. And they charge tremendously. So they charge a hundred. So I say, I'm not going to charge you a hundred, but I'm going to charge 25 per cent, and I hear this turmoil in the Senate because we are charging 25 per cent," he said. -- PTI

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