Former US President Donald Trump has once again raked up the “high taxes” imposed by India on certain American products and warned he would match it if voted to power in the 2024 presidential elections.
Trump, in 2019, had hit out at India for its “big tariffs” on American paper products and the iconic Harley-Davidson bikes. Calling India ‘tariff king”, Trump claimed the country has been losing billions of dollars to countries like India, China and Japan.
He doubled down on the issue a few days ago in an interview with Larry Kudlow of Fox Business News, stating that ” India is very big with tariffs.”
“The other thing I want to have is a matching tax where, if India charges us — India is very big with tariffs. I mean, I saw it with Harley-Davidson. I was saying, how do you do in a place like India? Oh, no good sir. Why? They have 100 per cent and 150 per cent and 200 per cent tariffs,” said the former president.
“So, I said, so they can sell their Indian motorbike. They actually make a bike, an Indian motorbike. They can sell that into our country with no tax, no tariff, but when you make a Harley, when you send it over there — because they were doing no business. I said, how come you don’t do business with India? The tariff is so high that nobody wants it. But what they want us to do is, they want us to go over and build a plant, and then you have no tariff,” Trump said.
“They said, well, that’s not good. That’s not our deal, OK? That’s not our deal. And I came down very hard on them. But India is very big. Brazil is very big on tariffs, I mean, very, very big. We had a couple of people, like the senator from a place called Pennsylvania that I love. But this guy was just horrendous. I said, let me ask you a question. If India is charging us 200 per cent, and we’re charging them nothing for products, can we charge them 100 per cent? No, sir, that’s not free trade. Can we charge them 50 per cent? No, sir. Twenty-five, 10, anything? No. I said, what the hell is wrong? There’s something wrong. You know what I’m talking about,” he said.
“If India is charging us too, so what I want to have is a — call it retribution. You could call it whatever you want. If they are charging us, we charge them,” Trump said in response to a question.
Trump, who is facing a series of court cases and indictments, has also announced that he would skip the upcoming Republican primary debates, citing his large lead in opinion polls. The first debate is set to happen on Wednesday night at Milwaukee in Wisconsin.
Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social to announce the news. “The public knows who I am & what a successful Presidency I had, Trump wrote on his social media site. “I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES!”
His spokesman did not immediately clarify whether he plans to boycott every primary debate or just those that have currently been scheduled.
Trump had earlier too suggested that he would not give his Republican rivals a chance to attack him given his sizeable lead in national polls. “Why would I allow people at 1 or 2% and 0% to be hitting me with questions all night?” he said in an interview in June with Fox News host Bret Baier, who will be serving as a moderator.
As per the latest poll figure, Trump was far ahead in the race with 62% of Republican voters choosing him. His closest rival Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is at 16% while all other candidates in the primary race had less than 10% support.
Trump’s absence now means that the spotlight will be on DeSantis and the other candidates will focus their attacks on him. The winner of the Republican nominating fight will take on Democratic President Joe Biden in November 2024 election.
Meanwhile, DeSantis campaign spokesperson Andrew Romeo said the Florida governor was looking forward to being in Milwaukee to share his vision for a possible presidency. “No one is entitled to this nomination, including Donald Trump. You have to show up and earn it,” Romeo said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Donald Trump had mocked DeSantis, stating he was “crashing like an ailing bird.”