‘They impose tariff on us, we will impose tariff on them…’, said Donald Trump taking the name of India

New Delhi: US President Donald Trump has once again talked about imposing tariff on India. Trump has said that they impose tariff on us, we will impose tariff on them. Donald Trump also said that the United States will also impose the same tariff on India as India imposes on American goods.

President Trump is making radical changes in America’s tariff policy. Adopting an aggressive trade policy, Trump has said many times that he will impose the same tariff on any country as that country imposes on American goods. Trump imposed tariff on Mexico, Canada and China as soon as he took office. But he had given Mexico and Canada a month’s time. This one month’s time is about to end.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited America. Then there was a discussion between Trump and PM Modi about tariff. India had reduced the tariff on products imported from America like American whiskey. India had also reduced tariffs on super American bike Harley Davidson. Then it seemed that India would get relief from Trump’s tough tariff policy. But this does not seem to be happening. Trump has once again raised the issue of tariffs.

Addressing a press conference, Donald Trump said, “We are going to impose reciprocal tariffs soon – they charge us, we will charge them. Whether it is a company or a country, like China and India. We want to be fair, so the United States will also impose the same tariffs that other countries like India and China impose on American goods.”

The US President also revealed that he wanted to impose reciprocal tariffs on India during his first term itself, but by then the Corona epidemic arrived. He said, “We never did this. We were preparing to do so before the Covid epidemic came.” Let us tell you that Donald Trump had earlier also said that the tariff structure in India is the highest and it is difficult to do business in this country.

Trump then said, “Traditionally, India is at the top of the list. There are some smaller countries that actually impose higher tariffs than this, but India imposes very high tariffs. I remember when Harley Davidson was not able to sell its motorbikes in India because the tax was very high in India, the tariff was very high and Harley was forced to manufacture there.”

Let us tell you that India is a major exporter of products like steel, aluminum, pharmaceuticals, textiles, gems and jewellery and auto parts to the US. If the US imposes high tariffs on imports from India, the price of these products will increase in the US market, which may reduce their demand.

The US was India’s largest export market in the financial year 2023-24, accounting for about 17.7% of total exports. The increase in tariffs has been estimated to cause a decline of 3-3.5% in Indian exports. This may particularly harm small and medium enterprises (SMEs) dependent on the US market.