US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that his administration would impose reciprocal tariffs on countries like India and China. This reiterated what he had said during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Washington, D.C.
“We’ll soon impose reciprocal tariffs because that means, they charge us, we charge them. Its very simple. Whatever a company or a country, such as let’s say India or China or any of them, whatever they charge, we want to be fair … so reciprocal. Reciprocal meaning, ‘they charge us, we charge them’,” PTI quoted Trump as saying at the swearing-in of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick
“We haven’t done that, we have never done that. We are getting ready to do it,” the 78-year-old Republican leader said.
Last Tuesday, Trump in a joint interview with Elon Musk told Fox News that he made it clear to PM Modi that India “will not be spared from Washington’s reciprocal tariffs”.
“I told Prime Minister Modi yesterday – he was here – I said, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do: reciprocal. Whatever you charge, I’m charging’,” Trump said.
Trump also cracked a joke about how ‘tariff’ was his favourite word once but he was forced to relegate it to fourth place after ‘family’, ‘love’ and ‘God.’ “I think, let’s put God first. You know why, because we don’t want to take any chances.”
Hours before his bilateral meeting with Modi, Trump had announced that the US would impose reciprocal tariffs on trading partners.
“I’ve decided for purposes of fairness that I will charge a reciprocal tariff,” Trump said in the Oval Office at the proclamation signing.
“It’s fair to all. No other country can complain,” he added.
During his first term as US president, Trump described India as a “tariff king.” In May 2019, he terminated India’s preferential market access—the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP)—to the US, alleging that India has not given the United States “equitable and reasonable access to its markets.”
