New Delhi: Ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G-20 summit at Osaka, Japan, US President Donald Trump hit out at India again over the issue of trade tariffs, saying that India has just recently increased the tariffs on American products even further, and that for years it had imposed “high tariffs against the United States”. The US has been accusing India of being a high tariff economy, something which sources in New Delhi have dismissed as a “misconception”.
In February last year, Trump had mocked Modi on the issue of lowering of duties on Harley Davidson motorcycles.
Trump had then been quoted as saying: “When they (Harley-Davidson) send a motorcycle to India they have to pay 100 per cent tax — 100 per cent. Now Modi, who I think is a fantastic man, called me the other day and said we are lowering it to 50 per cent. I said okay, but so far we’re getting nothing. So we get nothing.
He gets 50 (per cent), and they think we’re doing — like they’re doing us a favour. That’s not a favour.” On Wednesday, Mr Pompeo had said: “Great friends (India and US) are bound to have disagreements. The US ... (wants to see) greater market access and the removal of trade barriers.”
