WASHINGTON- United States President Donald Trump doesn’t care about friendsor foes when it comes to the interest of the American people.
Trump on Friday threatened to impose “reciprocal tax” on India if it do notmatch America’s tariff, PTI has reported.
Mr. Trump has, in recent days, spoken a number of times about the 50 percent duty that India levies on high-end motorbikes that Harley-Davidson, anAmerican company, sells in India. He has repeatedly insisted that the USlevies “zero” duty — or “nothing” — on motorbikes imported from India.
“We’re going to be doing a reciprocal tax programme, at some point so thatif China is going to charge us 25 per cent or if India is going to chargeus 75 per cent and we charge them nothing,” he said as he imposed a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 per cent tariff on aluminium from allcountries except Canada and Mexico.*Charge us 50, we would charge them 50*
“They are 50, they are 75 or they are 25, we are going to be doing the samenumbers. It’s called reciprocal. It’s a mirror of tags. So they charge us50, we would charge them 50,” Trump said.
The US President said the stage for the imposition of reciprocal tax hasbeen set in the first year of his administration.
He said American companies had not been treated fairly by other countries.
Referring to a tweet by Tesla chief Elan Musk, Mr. Trump said China charged25 per cent duty on American cars whereas it was just 2.5 per cent onimport of Chinese cars into the US.
Mr. Trump said the “reciprocal tax” programme would ensure “fair tradedeals” for the US.
The US President mentioned China several times as he signed twoproclamations to impose import duties on steel and aluminium.
“China says it’s got two per cent, but it sends much more. We’re going tohave a great relationship, hopefully, with China, but we have to dosomething. We’re losing with China USD 500 billion a year. We have to dosomething,” Mr. Trump told reporters during the signing ceremony.
Mr. Trump said the US was going to stop the trans-shipping. “Well, we’lllet it happen, but they’ve got to pay. So trans-shipping, frankly, is a bigdeal,” he said.
“And they trans-ship, and we’re going to accept their product, but it’sgoing to cost a lot of money from the standpoint of the trans-shipper,” headded.
The US, he said, is negotiating now with China.
“We’re in the midst of a big negotiation. I don’t know that anything isgoing to come of it. They have been very helpful. President Xi [Jinping], Ihave great respect for. A lot of respect,” he said.
“But we’re going to cut down the deficits one way or the other. We have adeficit with China of at least USD 500 billion. When you add intellectualproperty, it’s much higher than that,” Mr. Trump said.