Trump reaffirms plan to enforce reciprocal tariffs on India: ‘Want to be fair…’

US President Donald Trump (Courtesy: Reuters photo)

US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that the country will soon introduce reciprocal tariffs on countries such as India and China, stating that America will impose the same duties these nations apply to US products.

“We will soon impose reciprocal tariffs -- they charge us, we charge them. Whatever a company or a country, such as India or China or any of them, charges, we want to be fair; hence, reciprocal,” he said.

“We have never done that. We were getting ready to do it until Covid hit,” Trump added.

Ahead of his bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently, President Donald Trump remarked on India’s tariff policies, calling them "the highest" and describing the country as "a hard place to do business."

He made these comments during a press conference while responding to a question about Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s meeting with PM Modi.

"They met. I assume he wants to do business in India. But India is a very hard place to do business in because of the tariffs. They have the highest tariffs... It's a hard place to do business. I would imagine he met possibly because he is running a company, he is doing this as something that he has felt strongly about for a long time," Trump said.

The announcement by President Trump on reciprocal tariffs came earlier this month -- a move that aims to align US import tariffs with the tax rates imposed by other countries.

"I will charge a reciprocal tariff. Any country that charges the US a tariff will receive tariffs of the same amount. No more or less. In other words, if they charge us tax or tariffs, we will charge them the exact same tax or tariffs. Very simple," he told reporters.

The announcement came just hours before he was set to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House.