Trump rakes up India tax issue; says would impose reciprocal tax if voted to power

WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (PTI): Former US president Donald Trump has once again raised the issue of
high taxes in India on certain American products, in particular the iconic Harley-Davidson
motorcycles, and has threatened to slap reciprocal tax if he is voted to power in the 2024
presidential elections.
During his first term as the US president, Trump described India as a “tariff king” and in May 2019,
terminated India’s preferential market access — Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) — to the
United States alleging India has not given the United States “equitable and reasonable access to its
markets.”
The 77-year-old former president, who is facing a series of court cases and indictments, is leading
the Republican presidential primaries and accounts for more than half of the GOP votes according to
major national polls.
In an interview with Larry Kudlow of Fox Business News, Trump said came down heavily on India’s
tax rates, which he alleged were quite high.
“The other thing I want to have is a matching tax where, if India charges us — India is very big with
tariffs. I mean, I saw it with Harley-Davidson. I was saying, how do you do in a place like India? Oh,
no good sir. Why? They have 100 per cent and 150 per cent and 200 per cent tariffs,” said the
former president.
“So, I said, so they can sell their Indian motorbike. They actually make a bike, an Indian motorbike.
They can sell that into our country with no tax, no tariff, but when you make a Harley, when you
send it over there — because they were doing no business. I said, how come you don’t do business
with India? The tariff is so high that nobody wants it. But what they want us to do is, they want us to
go over and build a plant, and then you have no tariff,” Trump said.
“They said, well, that’s not good. That’s not our deal, OK? That’s not our deal. And I came down very
hard on them. But India is very big. Brazil is very big on tariffs, I mean, very, very big. We had a
couple of people, like the senator from a place called Pennsylvania that I love. But this guy was just
horrendous. I said, let me ask you a question. If India is charging us 200 per cent, and we’re charging
them nothing for products, can we charge them 100 per cent? No, sir, that’s not free trade. Can we
charge them 50 per cent? No, sir. Twenty-five, 10, anything? No. I said, what the hell is wrong?
There’s something wrong. You know what I’m talking about,” he said.
“If India is charging us too, so what I want to have is a — call it retribution. You could call it whatever
you want. If they are charging us, we charge them,” Trump said in response to a question.