Trump threatens to impose reciprocal tariffs against India

WASHINGTON: Incoming US president Donald Trump has threatened to impose reciprocal tariffs on India as he reiterated his longstanding complaints of New Delhi charging high tariffs.

Trump made the comment at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, standing alongside his commerce secretary pick Howard Lutnick. The former president, who has threatened tariffs on several countries as part of his “America First” approach, ended preferential trade status for India during his first term in 2019.

India faced a bitter tariff war under the first Trump administration that affected the trade ties on both sides even as prime minister Narendra Modi and Trump enjoyed close ties. Forget about the word tariff for a second, Trump said, adding that: “If they tax us, we tax them the same amount. They tax us. We tax them. And they tax us almost in all cases and we haven’t been taxing them.”

“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?” he said. “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,” he said. Relations between India and China have gained momentum over the past two decades as Washington’s tensions with China soared over the years. The ties further improved during the Biden administration as Washington viewed India as a strategic partner in counterbalancing China’s rise in the Indo-Pacific.

However, analysts have said the India-US ties under Trump’s second administration will have to pass the test of a looming tariff war. Following his election win, Trump threatened to slap 100 per cent tariff on the Brics countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – if they tried to replace the dollar for international trade.