Washington: Talking about India reducing import duty on American motorcycles from 100% to 50%, US President Donald Trump said it is still too high and not acceptable to him.
Trump added that under his leadership, the United States can no longer be fooled.
“We’re not the foolish country that does so badly. You look at India, a very good friend of mine, Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi, you take a look at what they’ve done, 100% tax on a motorcycle. We charge them nothing,” Trump told CBS news in an interview on Monday.
Trump was referring to the import tariff on the Harley Davidson motorcycles, an issue that has been close to his heart and wants India to reduce it to zero.
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“So, when Harley sends over there, they have 100% tax. When they (India) send in – they make a tremendous number of motorcycles – when they send them in, no tax. I called him. I said it’s unacceptable,” Trump said, referring to his conversation with PM Modi.
“He (PM Modi) reduced it by 50% with one phone call. I said it’s still unacceptable because it’s 50% versus nothing. It’s still unacceptable. And they’re working on it,” he said, indicating that the two countries are still in talks to resolve the issue of import tariffs on American motorcycles.
“But if I didn’t, if we didn’t have the power of what we have, and if we weren’t the bank–well, if we weren’t the bank we wouldn”t even be talking about it because nobody would care. But we”re the bank that everybody wants to rob, and that’s what they’ve been doing for a long period of time. USD 800 billion we have in trade deficits with other countries. So you tell me who made those deals,” he said in response to a question.
(With agencies input)