United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday described Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “great friend” while announcing new retaliatory tariffs on India. Trump declared that Washington would impose “discounted reciprocal tariffs” of 26% on Indian imports.
“India is very, very tough,” Trump remarked. “The Prime Minister just left—he’s a great friend of mine, but I told him, ‘You’re not treating us right.’ They charge us 52%, while we’ve been charging them almost nothing for years. It was only when I took office seven years ago that we started imposing tariffs on China, bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars.” He made these comments while holding a chart listing various countries and their tariff rates.
Prime Minister Modi had visited Washington, D.C., in February, less than a month after Trump was sworn in for his second term at the White House.
Trump has previously labeled India as the “tariff king” and accused it of being a “big abuser” in global trade. Speaking alongside Modi during a joint press conference at the White House on February 13, Trump acknowledged India’s aggressive tariff policies:
“India has been very strong on tariffs. I don’t necessarily blame them, but it’s a different way of doing business. It’s very hard to sell into India because of their trade barriers and high tariffs.”
Citing the $100 billion US trade deficit with India, Trump said he and Modi had agreed to initiate negotiations to “correct long-running disparities that should have been addressed over the past four years but weren’t.” Their goal, he explained, was to sign a trade agreement ensuring “a level playing field, which we believe we’re entitled to—and, in fairness, Modi agrees.”
Justifying the new tariffs, Trump emphasized that the US had been “very kind” to its trading partners and would now impose tariffs amounting to “approximately half of what they charge us on US goods.”
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