New York: US President Donald Trump has said that he expects India to lower tariffs substantially, but will go ahead with his plan to charge a reciprocal rate.
“I believe they’re going to probably going to be lowering those tariffs substantially, but on April 2, we will be charging them the same tariffs they charge us”, he said in an interview published on Thursday.
“I have a very good relationship with India, but the only problem I have with India is they’re one of the highest tariffing nations in the world”, he told Breitbart, a conservative news outlet.
Asked about the India-Middle East-Europe-Economic Corridor (IMEC), he said that it was by a “group of wonderful nations” banding together “countering other countries that look to hurt us on trade”.
He did not identify the countries they were trying to counter, although China was an obvious target.
The IMEC was proposed at the 2023 G20 Summit in New Delhi and along with India and the United States, Saudi Arabia, the European Union, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), France, Germany, and Italy signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the project.
It would include both sea and land routes and connect India to Italy via the Middle East, and then aspirationally across the Atlantic to the US.
Trump reinforced US commitment to the project during Prime Minister Narendra Modi during last month’s visit to the White House, calling it the “greatest trade route in all of history”.
Trump has criticised India as a “tariff king” and highlighted its high tariffs on motorcycles, luxury cars, and whiskey.
In response to Trump’s criticism Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman announced that the tariffs on luxury cars would be cut to 70 per cent from 125 per cent, and on high-end motorcycles from 50 per cent to 40 per cent.
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal visited Washington this month and spoke to US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in a bid to stave off the tariff hikes.
The US, in particular, wants India to lower its tariffs on agriculture imports.
In the Breitbart interview, Trump could be interpreted as a caution for India’s dealings with the European Union.
Making his oft-repeated criticism of the European economic group, he said, “The ones that wouldn’t be as friendly to us in some cases treat us better than the ones that are supposed to be friendly, like the European Union, which treats us terribly on trade”.
He then added, “India and everybody would think of them as an ally. I can say the same for others. But this is a group of wonderful nations that is countering other countries that look to hurt us on trade.”
During European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s visit to New Delhi last month, the group and India agreed to speedup negotiations to finalise a free trade agreement by this year’s end.
“We have a powerful group of partners in trade”, he told Breitbart. “Again, we can’t let those partners treat us badly, however. We do better in many ways frankly with our foes than we do with our friends”.
Trump had earlier questioned the aims of the European Union claiming it was “formed in order to screw the United States”.
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