2024 US Presidential Elections: Donald Trump's big warning to India ‘Reciprocal tax if...'

Former US President Donald Trump has once again raised the India tax issue on certain American products in particular the iconic Harley-Davidson motorcycles. He has threatened to slap with reciprocal tax if voted to power in the 2024 US presidential elections.
During his first term in the United States, Donald Trump described India as a ‘tariff king’ and in May 2019, terminated India’s preferential market access alleging that the country has not given the US equitable and reasonable access to its markets.
In an interview with Fox Business News, Trump heavily came down on Indian tax rates which he said were ‘quite high’ to over 100 percent.
“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 percent and 150 percent and 200 percent tariffs,” Trump told Fox Business News.
“So, I said, so they can sell their Indian motorbike. They actually make a bike, an Indian motorbike. They can sell that into our country with no tax, no tariff, but when you make a Harley, when you send it over there — because they were doing no business,” the former US President said.
“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,” he added.
Apart from India, Trump said that Brazil is also ‘very big’ on tariffs. “But India is very big. Brazil is very big on tariffs, I mean, very, very big. We had a couple of people, like the senator from a place called Pennsylvania that I love. But this guy was just horrendous.”
“I said, let me ask you a question. If India is charging us 200 percent, and we’re charging them nothing for products, can we charge them 100 percent? No, sir, that’s not free trade. Can we charge them 50 percent? No, sir. Twenty-five, 10, anything? No. I said, what the hell is wrong? There’s something wrong. You know what I’m talking about,” Trump further said as quoted by Fox Business News.
Currently, Trump is facing a series of court cases and indictments. He is also leading the Republican presidential primaries, and accounts for more than half of the GOP votes according to major national polls.
However, he has officially announced his decision to skip the upcoming Republican primary debate, the first of the 2024 cycle.

(With PTI inputs)
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