US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said India has offered him a “no tariff” deal. He defended his move to impose a 50% tariff on Indian goods.
During a telephonic interview on The Scott Jennings Radio Show, Trump claimed that he understands tariffs better than any human being and criticised India, which he believes is the “most tariffed nation” in the world.
“China kills us with tariffs, India kills us with tariffs, Brazil kills us with tariffs. I’ve understood tariffs better than they did; I understood tariffs better than any human beings in the world. India was the most highly tariffed nation in the world, and you know what, they’ve offered me no tariffs in India anymore. No tariffs. If I didn’t have tariffs, they would never make that offer. So you have to have tariffs,” Donald Trump said.
Earlier, on Monday, he claimed that the business relationship between the two countries for many decades has been “totally one-sided”, “one-sided disaster” and also that “they have now offered to cut their tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late”.
“What few people understand is that we do very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us. In other words, they sell us massive amounts of goods, their biggest “client,” but we sell them very little – Until now a totally one sided relationship, and it has been for many decades. The reason is that India has charged us, until now, such high Tariffs, the most of any country, that our businesses are unable to sell into India,” he said.
“It has been a totally one-sided disaster! Also, India buys most of its oil and military products from Russia, very little from the U.S. They have now offered to cut their Tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late. They should have done so years ago. Just some simple facts for people to ponder!!!” he added.
