Trump Asks India to Reverse ‘Unacceptable’ Tariffs on US Goods

  • President Donald Trump called on India to withdraw an “unacceptable” increase in tariffs on US goods, ratcheting up tension against the Asian nation before a planned meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
  • “India, for years having put very high Tariffs against the US, just recently increased the Tariffs even further,” Trump said in a Twitter post, his first direct response to India’s move earlier this month to raise tariffs on a slew of products from walnuts to pulses.
  • The tariffs on almost 30 American products came in response to higher duties imposed by the U.S. and Trump’s move June 1 to end trade concessions on $6.3Bn of Indian goods.
  • Modi’s administration repeatedly deferred the move, originally announced in June last year, as it sought to relieve trade tensions through talks.
  • India levies an average tariff of 6.9% on imports, slightly higher than 6.0% in the U.S. and 6.1% in China, according to World Bank data as of 2017.

(Source: Bloomberg)