Washington, Feb 14 President Donald Trump has called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “much tougher negotiator than him” as the two nations grapple with tariffs.
“He is a much tougher negotiator than me. He is a better negotiator than me. There is not even a contest,” Trump said at a news conference after their bilateral meeting here on Thursday at which tariffs were an important topic.
Trump, who unveiled earlier in the day a plan for a system of reciprocal tariffs, criticised India saying that it was “just about the highest tariff nation anywhere in the world”.
"It's very hard to sell into India because they have trade barriers, very strong tariffs,” said Trump, who has made the global trade deficit of $98.4 billion that the US racked up a rallying cry in his trade war.
He threatened to impose reciprocal tariffs, mirroring what India and all other countries charge on imports from the US. “We are, right now, a reciprocal nation,” he said. "We're gonna have whatever India charges (on imports from the US), we're charging them”.
“We're just going to do it the easy way, we're just going to say whatever you charge we charge and I think that's fair for the people of the United States, and I think it's actually fair for India,” he said.
When he unveiled the reciprocal tariff plan earlier on Thursday, Trump did not set the new tariffs but only issued a memorandum asking his nominees, Howard Lutnick, for commerce secretary, and Jamieson for international trade representative to come up within 180 days a tariff plan for each country.
Speaking after the memorandum signing, Trump brought up his pet peeve with India, the Harley Davidson motorcycles. “Harley Davidson couldn't sell their motorbikes in India because of the fact that (in) India, the tax was so high, the tariff was so high,” he said.
"I think they built a factory in India in order to avoid paying the tariffs,” he said. “And that's what people can do with us. ... If you build here, you have no tariffs whatsoever,” he added.
The factsheet produced by the White House on reciprocal tariffs carried factually wrong information about India and Harley Davidson. India “charges a 100 per cent tariff on US motorcycles, while we only charge a 2.4 per cent tariff on Indian motorcycles,” the factsheet said. But India had already reduced tariffs on heavier Harley Davidson to 50 per cent and in this month’s budget reduced it further to 30 per cent, and 40 per cent for other models.
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