Donald Trump threatens ‘reciprocal’ tax on India: ‘If India charges us 100%…’

United States President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to impose retaliatory taxes on countries like India and Brazil as “reciprocation” of “high tariff” imposed by them on import of certain American products, PTI reported.

Speaking to reporters on December 16, Trump said, “Reciprocal. If they tax us, we tax them the same amount. They tax us. We tax them. And they tax us. Almost in all cases, they're taxing us, and we haven't been taxing them.”

India, Brazil on Trump's Radar for ‘Reciprocal Tax’

When asked about a potential trade agreement with China, Trump particularly named India and Brazil being among the countries that impose high tariffs on certain US products and stated plans to retaliate. He was speaking at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

“The word reciprocal is important because if somebody charges us — India, we don't have to talk about our own — if India charges us 100 per cent, do we charge them nothing for the same? You know, they send in a bicycle and we send them a bicycle. They charge us 100 and 200. India charges a lot. Brazil charges a lot. If they want to charge us, that's fine, but we're going to charge them the same thing,” Trump said.

Key Topic For Trump Adminstration

Trump's Commerce Secretary pick Howard Lutnick also reiterated the republican's statement, telling reporters “reciprocity” is something that is going to be a key topic for the Trump administration. “How you treat us is how you should expect to be treated,” he said.

‘Leaving India-US relationship In Very Good Place’

Speaking to reporters in Washington on December 17, Kurt Campbell, Deputy Secretary of State said the outgoing Joe Biden administration is leaving the India-US relationship “in a very strong place”, and expressed confidence that this would continue under Trump's presidency, as per a PTI report.

“We are quite confident that we'll be handing the bilateral relationship off to the incoming Trump team at its strongest possible apex, with key support from stakeholders in the industry, in technology, in finance and defence. As we were here today, it was inspirational to see the manifestations of engagement between the United States and India in critical endeavours associated with space,” Campbell said.

(With inputs from PTI)