Donald Trump, the ex-president of the United States who is pursuing re-election, has revisited the matter of India imposing elevated taxes on specific American goods, notably the iconic Harley-Davidson motorcycles. He has issued a warning of imposing retaliatory taxes if he wins the 2024 presidential elections.
What did Donald Trump say?
In his initial tenure as the US president, Trump labeled India as a “tariff king.” In May 2019, he terminated India’s preferential market access under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) to the United States. Trump asserted that India had not granted the United States “equitable and reasonable access to its markets.”
Speaking to media, Donald said, “The other thing I want to have is a matching tax where, if India charges us — India is very big with tariffs. I mean, I saw it with Harley-Davidson. I was saying, how do you do in a place like India? Oh, no good sir. Why? They have 100 per cent and 150 per cent and 200 per cent tariffs.”
Continuing further, he said, “So, I said, so they can sell their Indian motorbike. They actually make a bike, an Indian motorbike. They can sell that into our country with no tax, no tariff, but when you make a Harley, when you send it over there — because they were doing no business. I said, how come you don’t do business with India? The tariff is so high that nobody wants it. But what they want us to do is, they want us to go over and build a plant, and then you have no tariff.”
He continued by saying, “They said, well, that’s not good. That’s not our deal, OK? That’s not our deal. And I came down very hard on them. But India is very big. Brazil is very big on tariffs, I mean, very, very big. We had a couple of people, like the senator from a place called Pennsylvania that I love. But this guy was just horrendous. I said, let me ask you a question. If India is charging us 200 per cent, and we’re charging them nothing for products, can we charge them 100 per cent? No, sir, that’s not free trade. Can we charge them 50 per cent? No, sir. Twenty-five, 10, anything? No. I said, what the hell is wrong? There’s something wrong. You know what I’m talking about.”
Donald Trump’s big statement on India
In response to one of the questions, Donald said, “If India is charging us too, so what I want to have is a — call it retribution. You could call it whatever you want. If they are charging us, we charge them.”
Amidst a barrage of legal proceedings and accusations, the ex-president is currently at the forefront of the Republican presidential primaries. He commands over fifty percent of the GOP votes, as indicated by prominent national polls.
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