'PM Modi a great friend, but...': Top quotes from Donald Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariff speech

US President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House.

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday unveiled his “Liberation Day” tariffs, imposing 10 percent tariffs on imports from around the world and harsh extra levies on key trading partners.

Holding up a chart of the sweeping measures in the White House Rose Garden, Trump unveiled particularly stinging tariffs on major trade partners China and the European Union.

"This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history," said Trump. "It's our declaration of economic independence."

Trump made clear he was no longer allowing imports into the United States without an appropriate tariff -- and said countries should embrace "a little tough love."

"Foreign leaders have stolen our jobs, foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories, and foreign scavengers have torn aport our once-beautiful American Dream," Trump warned.

"But it is not going to happen anymore."

Here are the top quotes from his historic announcement:

·       Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s February visit to the United States, Trump described him as a “great friend”, but criticised India for imposing “very tough” tariffs. “The Prime Minister just left. He’s a great friend of mine. But I said, ‘You’re a friend of mine, but you haven’t been treating us right’. They charge us 52 per cent, but we charge them almost nothing for years and decades. It was only seven years ago when I came in,” he said.

·       "So we're going to be charging a discounted reciprocal tariff of 34 percent" on China imports, Trump said. "They charge us, we charge them, we charge them less. So how can anybody be upset? They will be, because we never charged anybody anything. But now we're going to charge."

·       "For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike," Trump said, stressing that trade abuse by allies was often more intense than that committed by rivals.

·       "Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base. We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers, and ultimately, more production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers."

·       “From 1789 to 1913 we were a tariff-backed nation, and the United States was proportionately the wealthiest it has ever been,” said Trump, who has repeatedly elevated 1890s protectionist president William McKinley as one of his heroes who also slapped tariffs on imports.

·       “In 1913 for reasons unknown to mankind, they established the income tax so that citizens, rather than foreign countries, would start paying the money necessary to run our government.”

·       “Then in 1929, it all came to a very abrupt end with the Great Depression. And it would have never happened if they had stayed with the tariff policy.”