India Charges Us Tariffs Higher Than 100%…We Will Tax Them, Says Trump In His First Address To US Congress

Washington: Claiming that some countries have ‘trade policies that are unfair to Americans’, US President Donald Trump has promised to impose reciprocal tariffs from April 2 on most of America’s trading partners, including India.

This comes a day after his pledge of 25 per cent reciprocal tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports took effect along with a doubling of duties on Chinese goods to 20 per cent. Consequently, these three countries—the largest trading partners of US—have announced retaliatory measures against America.

“Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades, and now it is our turn to start using them against those other countries. On average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India and countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs than we charge them. It is very unfair,” he said during his joint address to the US Congress. This his first address to the Congress since assuming office in January.

“India charges us tariffs higher than 100 per cent, China’s average tariff on our products is twice what we charge them and South Korea’s average tariff is four times higher. This is happening by friends and foe. The system is not fair to the US; it never was. On April 2, reciprocal tariffs kick in. Whatever they tax us, we will tax them,” Trump said.

The US President said he didn’t want to make the announcement on April 1 since it is April Fool’s Day. “If the trading partners use non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we will use non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market”, Trump said

“We will take in trillions and trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before” and noted that “we’ve been ripped off for decades by every country on earth, and we will not let that happen any longer,” he added.

Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his government would impose tariffs on more than $100 billion of American goods over the course of 21 days. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she would respond to the new taxes with its own retaliatory tariffs.

China retaliated with tariffs of up to 15 per cent on American farm exports. It also expanded the number of US companies subject to export controls and other restrictions by about two dozen.