India a high-tariff nation, says Trump
Washington : India is a very high-tariff nation, US President Donald Trump alleged on Saturday, stating that he wants a reciprocal tax or at least some kind of tax.
"India is a very high-tariff nation. They charge us a lot," Trump said in his address to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the Maryland suburb of Washington DC.
In his speech that lasted for more than two hours, Trump touched a wide range of issues including domestic, global and bilateral relationship with countries like India.
Referring to his often-cited example of the iconic Harley-Davidson motorcycles, he said, "When we send a motorcycle to India, it's a hundred per cent tariff. They charge 100 per cent when India sends a motorcycle to us, we brilliantly charge them nothing."
"So, I want a reciprocal tax or at least, I want to charge a tax. It's called the mirror tax, but it's reciprocal," Trump asserted.
Early this year, at a White House event to announce his support for reciprocal tax, Trump had said he was satisfied with the Indian decision to reduce the import tariff on Harley-Davidson motorcycles from 100 per cent to 50 per cent. "Even this is not enough, this is okay," he had said.
"Look at motorcycles as an example. (In) India, it was 100 per cent. I got them down to 50 per cent, just by talking for about two minutes. It's still 50 per cent vs 2.4 per cent (on imported motorcycles to the US). Again, other than that, it's a very fair deal," the president had told reporters at the White House on January 24.
On Saturday, he used the Indian example of how other countries were imposing high taxes on American products and now it was time for the US to impose a reciprocal tax. To prove his point, Trump said, he was using India as an example.
"But India is a very high-tariff nation. And they charge tremendously. So they charge a hundred. So I say, I'm not going to charge you a hundred, but I'm going to charge 25 per cent, and I hear this turmoil in the Senate because we are charging 25 per cent," he said.
Trump told his supporters that there was resistance to his move from the Senate.
"I say, fellows, listen, they are charging us a hundred per cent. For the exact same product, I want to charge them 25 per cent. I feel so foolish charging 25, because it should be a hundred. But I'm doing 25 only because of you. I want to get your support," he said.
Thereafter, Trump mimicked the response from the lawmakers. "Sir, that's not free trade. Where did these people come from? Where do they come from? I need your help, I need your help, the voters' help. Where do they come from?," he said.
Trump said the US could not allow a country to charge it 100 per cent while it got nothing for the exact same product.
"For one thing, they don't respect us. They think we're stupid. They don't respect us. But let me tell you something, the world respects our country again," he said.
"America is now booming like never before. Other countries are doing very poorly," Trump said.
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
