Donald Trump says he has ‘good relations with India,’ flags ‘the only problem’
US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he has a“very good relationship” with India. He, however, added that the only problem he has with the country is that it is “one of the highest tariffing nations in the world.”
“I have a very good relationship with India, but the only problem I have with India is they’re one of the highest tariffing nations in the world. I believe they’re going to probably be lowering those tariffs substantially, but on April 2, we will be charging them the same tariffs they charge us,” Trump told Breitbart News, an American news, opinion, and commentary website, in an interview.
Trump called the India-Middle East-Europe-Economic Corridor as a “group of wonderful nations” bonding together,“countering other countries that look to hurt us on trade.”
“We have a powerful group of partners in trade,” Trump said.
“Again, we can’t let those partners treat us badly, however, we do better in many ways frankly with our foes than we do with our friends,” the Republican leader added.
“The ones that wouldn’t be as friendly to us in some cases treat us better than the ones that are supposed to be friendly, like the European Union, which treats us terribly on trade. India and everybody would think of them as an ally,” the US president said.
“I can say the same for others. But this is a group of wonderful nations that is countering other countries that look to hurt us on trade,” he added.
Trump’s reciprocal tariffs on India
On March 5, Trump had criticised the high tariffs charged by India and other countries, terming them as “very unfair” and announced reciprocal tariffs from April 2 on nations that impose levies on American goods.
Trump made these remarks in an address to the Joint Session of the Congress on Tuesday. It was the first address of his second term in the White House.
“If you don’t make your product in America, however, under the Trump administration, you will pay a tariff and in some cases, a rather large one,” PTI quoted Trump as saying.
“Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades and now it’s our turn to start using them against those other countries. On average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Mexico and Canada — have you heard of them? And countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs than we charge them,” Trump said. “It’s very unfair. India charges us auto tariffs higher than 100 per cent,” he added.