US President Donald Trump has announced significant reciprocal tariffs on India and China, but said he is being kind on them by charging roughly “half of what they charge us”. Calling these as “discounted reciprocal tariffs”, President Trump said the US will charge an import duty of 26 per cent on India and 34 per cent on China.
Speaking about India, President Trump described tariffs by New Delhi as “very very tough”. He went on to say that “Their Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) just left (US recently)…he is a great friend of mine, but I said to him that ‘you’re a friend of mine, but you’ve not been treating us right’. India charges us 52 per cent, so we will charge them half of that – 26 per cent.”
The President also announced a 20 per cent levy on imports from the European Union and 10 per cent from the UK – two of the main trade partners and allies of the United States. On Japan too, he levied a 24 per cent tariff.
These tariffs, the White House said, come over and above a 10 per cent base import duty on all products imported into the United States. President Trump, however, did not explain how these tariffs would be levied in an industry-wise break-up.
The announcement was made to loud cheers at the White House Rose Garden, as Donald Trump said, “For far too long, other countries have looted and plundered us, while taking advantage of our policies. But no longer. April 2nd will forever be known as Liberation Day – when America reclaimed its industries. We will now impose reciprocal tariffs on countries that tariff us – Reciprocal means we do to them, what they do to us, as simple as that.”
“By doing this we will reclaim our jobs, we will reclaim our industry, we will reclaim our small and medium scale businesses…and we will make America wealthy again. Jobs will come roaring into America now,” he added.
The White House told reporters shortly after the “Liberation Day” tariff announcement that due to a “national emergency” which has stemmed from security concerns due to persistent trade deficits, the US is imposing a “baseline” 10 per cent tariff that would start at 12:01am local time (9:30 am IST) on April 5, while the higher country-specific tariffs would begin from 12:01 am local time (9:30 am IST) on April 9.