Ahead of Meeting With PM Modi, Trump Says India's Tariff Hike Unacceptable, Must be Withdrawn

A day before Donald Trump meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Japan, the US President said he looked forward to speaking with Modi about a recent increase in its already high tariffs against the United States.

Taking to Twitter, Trump said: “I look forward to speaking with Prime Minister Modi about the fact that India, for years having put very high Tariffs against the United States, just recently increased the Tariffs even further. This is unacceptable and the Tariffs must be withdrawn!”

The US President has earlier too hit out against India’s tariffs, saying even though the country reduced its import tariff on American motorcycles from 100 per cent to 50 per cent, it is still too high and not acceptable to him.

Trump said the United States, under his leadership, is a country that can no longer be fooled. “We're not the foolish country that does so badly. You look at India, very good friend of mine, Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi, you take a look at what they've done, 100 percent tax on a motorcycle. We charge them nothing,” Trump told CBS news in an interview.

The President has repeatedly claimed that India is a "tariff king" and imposes "tremendously high" tariffs on American products.

India is pressing for exemption from the high duty imposed by the US on certain steel and aluminium products, resumption of export benefits to certain domestic products under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) programme, greater market access for its products from agriculture, automobile, automobile components and engineering sectors.

On the other hand, the US is demanding greater market access through a cut in import duties for its agriculture goods, dairy products, medical devices, IT and communication items. India has stated that it would be difficult for them to cut duties on IT products.

India imposed retaliatory tariffs on the US after withdrawal of key trade privileges, which will lead to an increase in prices of almonds, walnuts and apples among other products.