‘If they tax us, we tax them the same amount’: Donald Trump’s message to India on high tariffs

“The word reciprocal is important because if somebody charges us, India, we don’t have to talk about our own, if India charges us 100 per cent, do we charge them nothing for the same? You know, they send in a bicycle and we send them a bicycle. They charge us 100 and 200,” Trump said, as quoted by PTI.

Responding to a question on a potential trade agreement with China, Trump said that it was India and Brazil which levy high tariffs.

“India charges a lot. Brazil charges a lot. If they want to charge us, that’s fine, but we’re going to charge them the same thing,” Trump said at the news briefing.

Trump claimed that in almost all the cases, US products are being taxed but the American administration has not been taxing them. “Reciprocal. If they tax us, we tax them the same amount. They tax us. We tax them. And they tax us,” he added.

Trump’s Commerce Secretary pick Howard Lutnick said that reciprocity is bound to be the central subject when it comes to the upcoming Trump administration. “How you treat us is how you should expect to be treated,” he said, responding to a question by reporters.

According to the statistics, the US remains the largest partner of trade for India with bilateral trade crossing $120 billion in FY24, which is slightly above the India-China trade numbers. India’s trade balance with the United States remains favourable, unlike China.

Meanwhile, India has seen a gradual increase in its export market share with the American market as India’s export used to be 10% to the United States in 2010-11, which has now shot up to 18%. In the portfolio of India’s export to the US, textiles, electronics, and engineering goods occupy the major chunk.

(with inputs from PTI)

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