‘They charge us, we charge them; it’s very simple’
New York: US President Donald Trump has said that his administration will “soon” impose reciprocal tariffs on countries such as India and China, reiterating what he had said during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to the US capital.
Trump was speaking at the swearing-in of commerce secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday when he made the announcement.
“We’ll soon impose reciprocal tariffs because that means, they charge us, we charge them. It’s very simple. Whatever a company or a country, such as let’s say India or China or any of them, whatever they charge, we want to be fair… So reciprocal. Reciprocal meaning, ‘they charge us, we charge them’,” Trump said in Washington.
“We haven’t done that, we have never done that. We are getting ready to do it,” he added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Fox News aired a joint television interview with Trump and billionaire Elon Musk when the President said that he made it clear to Modi that India will not be spared from Washington’s reciprocal tariffs and emphasised that “nobody can argue with me” on tariff structure.
During the interview, Trump reiterated his stance on existing tariff structures between the US and its partners, including India.
“I told Prime Minister Modi yesterday – he was here – I said, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do: reciprocal. Whatever you charge, I’m charging’,” Trump said.
Hours before his bilateral meeting with Modi, Trump announced that the US will impose reciprocal tariffs on trading partners.
On Friday, Trump praised Lutnick and said, “Howard understands something about business.”
Trump also said how before Covid hit, the US had “the greatest economy in the history of the world,” and added, “But tariffing is going to be very interesting and Howard’s going to be in-charge of it.”
Trump also cracked a joke about how ‘tariff’ was his favourite word once but he was forced to relegate it to fourth place after ‘family’, ‘love’ and ‘God.’ “I think, let’s put God first. You know why, because we don’t want to take any chances.”
“I did that once, I said, ‘tariff’ is my favourite word. The fake news went out and they really got me and they said, ‘What about God, family, relationship… A couple of words. And I said, ‘You are right!’,” Trump said as others in the room giggled, “So, now made it my fourth favourite word.”
