By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the relationship with New Delhi was “one-sided” as it charged “tremendously high tariffs”, not allowed US to sell anything in the Indian markets.
Trump has defended his administration’s imposition of tariffs on India and several other countries, said the money coming in is big and that it makes America “great negotiators”.
“The money coming in is so big because of tariffs and other things, but because of tariffs. Tariff gets us even those other things. Plus, it makes us great negotiators,” Trump told reporters as he announced the move of the US Space Command headquarters to Huntsville, Alabama.
He also repeated his claim of stopping “seven wars” using trade.
“I settled seven wars and numerous of those wars were because of trade. And numerous of the trade deals that I made were because of tariffs. It gives you a great negotiating ability,” he added.
He said the relationship with New Delhi was “one-sided” as it charged “tremendously high tariffs”, not allowing US to sell in Indian markets when asked whether he will reconsider the imposition of steep tariffs on India.
“We get along with India very well but India, for many years, it was a one-sided relationship. India was charging us tremendous tariffs. they were the highest in the world and we therefore, were not doing business with India, but they were doing business with us because we weren’t charging them foolishly… so they sent in everything they made and poured it into the country… but we would not send in anything, as they were charging us with 100 per cent tariffs,” he said.
He cited the example of the American motorcycle company Harley Davidson, claiming India charged 200 per cent tariff on the motorcycles imported into the country.
“Harley Davidson couldn’t sell in India, as there was a 200 per cent tariff on a motorcycle…Harley Davidson went to India and built a motorcycle plant, and now they don’t have to pay tariffs,” he added.
China threatened the US-led world order at nthe SCO summit, the US President made a sweeping assertion, claimed that without America “everything in the world would die.”
“Without the United States, everything in the world would die. It’s true. It’s so powerful. It’s so big. And I made it really big in the first four years. Then it started to degenerate with what this Biden administration did. But we’ve built it up to a level that I never thought we could be at this quickly. We’re the hottest. We’re the best. We’re the best financially,” Trump declared.
