US President Donald Trump has confirmed that the US will impose reciprocal tariffs on India and other countries from April 2.
In his address to the joint session of the US Congress on Tuesday (local time), US President Donald Trump emphasised that the US will impose reciprocal tariffs on India and other countries from April 2. In what turned out to be a light moment during the address, Trump said that he didn’t want to announce on April 1 because it was April Fool’s Day.
He said, “I wanted to make it April 1st, but I didn’t want to be accused of April Fool’s Day. One day would’ve cost us a lot of money, but we’re going to do it in April. I’m a very superstitious person.”
“That’s reciprocal, back and forth. Whatever they tax us, we will tax them. If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we will do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market. There’s a lot of that, too,” Trump added.
He also spoke about the tariffs imposed by the European Union, China, Brazil and Mexico and announced that the US will impose tariffs on other nations based on what they do to the US.
“China’s average tariff on our products is twice what we charge them. And South Korea’s average tariff is four times higher. Think of that four times higher, and we give so much help militarily and in so many other ways to South Korea. But that’s what happens, this is happening by friend and foe.”
The US President also vowed to tax the countries who were taxing the US and claimed that the US had been ripped off for years by every country on Earth.
Trump said that his administration has accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations in four years or eight years, and “we have just started.” He stated that the US is on the “verge of a comeback, the likes of which has never witnessed.”
(With inputs from agencies)
