Donald Trump.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Former US President Donald Trump, who is seeking a second term, has criticised India for imposing a high tariff on Harley-Davidson motorcycles imported from America. He also threatened to impose reciprocal tariffs on India if he is voted back into office in the 2024 presidential elections.
“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% and 150% and 200% tariffs,” Trump said in an interview with Larry Kudlow of Fox Business News.
“So, I said, so they can sell their Indian motorbike. ... They can sell that in our country with no tax, no tariff. But when you make a Harley, when you send it 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, adding: “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.”
Even during his presidency, Trump had publicly ridiculed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the high tariff India had imposed on Harley-Davidson motorcycles. “When they (Harley Davidson) send a motorcycle to India, as an example, they have to pay 100% tax, 100%,” he had said in February 2018.
“Now, the PM (Modi), who I think is a fantastic man, called me the other day and said we are lowering it to 50%. I said okay, but so far we’re getting nothing. So we get nothing. He gets 50%, and they think we’re doing like they’re doing us a favour. That’s not a favour," he had said.
Trump’s latest criticism came a couple of months after the two sides made a move towards resolving trade disputes. On June 22, India agreed to withdraw the additional customs duties it had levied on 28 US products in retaliation to a move by Washington DC of imposing higher tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from all countries.
Trump’s successor President Joe Biden’s administration has not announced any reciprocal withdrawal of the higher tariffs on steel and aluminium imports to the US.