Trump rules out lowering tariffs on Indian imports

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump, in a sharp rebuke of India’s trade policies, firmly said that he has no intention of lowering tariffs on Indian imports. The remarks came just a week after Washington doubled levies on Indian goods to 50% as punishment for its Russian oil imports.

When asked by a reporter whether he was considering taking away some of the tariffs imposed on India, President Trump bluntly replied, “No”. “We get along with India very well,” he added at a White House event, but criticized what he said was an imbalanced trade relationship with New Delhi because of high Indian levies.

“India has, you have to understand, for many years, it was a one-sided relationship,” he said. “India was charging us tremendous tariffs, about the highest in the world,” Trump said, adding that the US was therefore not doing much business with India.

“But they were doing business with us because we weren’t charging them, foolishly, we weren’t charging them,” he said, adding that India was pouring its products into the US.

Trump set a 25% duty on Indian exports but doubled that level to 50% last week as punishment for purchases of Russian oil. Those levies hit more than 55% of goods shipped to the US, which is India’s biggest market.

“They’d send it in, pour it into our country. Therefore it wouldn’t be made here, which is a negative, but we would not send in anything because they were charging us 100 per cent tariffs,” Trump said.

The US president cited the example of the Harley Davidson motorcycles, saying the company couldn’t sell into India because there was a 200 per cent tariff on a motorcycle.

“So what happens? Harley Davidson went to India and built a motorcycle plant, and now they don’t have to pay tariffs, same thing as us,” he said.

Trump has expressed frustration over India’s continued purchases of Russian energy. Critics say such energy buys by India help keep Russia’s economy afloat and undercut sanctions against Moscow aimed at reining in the country’s military machine and bringing an end to the war in Ukraine.

Trump on Monday said that India had offered to cut its tariffs “to nothing” in a social media post, without saying when that offer was made or whether the White House plans to reopen trade talks with India.