News Brief
US To Impose Reciprocal Tariffs on India, China, EU, And Others From 2 April, Says Trump
US President Donald trump delivering the State of The Union address in the US Congress
In his first address of the second term to a joint session of United States Congress, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday (5 March) strongly defended his tariff policy, asserting that the country has long faced high tariffs from multiple nations, including India, Hindustan Times reported.
“If you don’t make your product in America under the Trump administration, you will pay a tariff, and in some cases, a rather large one. Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades and now it's our turn to start using them against those other countries,” Trump said during his address.
The US President went on to name countries that, according to him, impose "tremendous" amount of tariffs on American products.
Citing examples, he said, "On average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Mexico, and Canada… have you heard of them? And countless other nations charge us tremendously high tariffs compared than we charge them, it's very unfair,” Trump said.
Singling out India during the speech, Trump said, “India charges us auto tariffs higher than 100 percent.”
Trump announced that the United States will impose reciprocal tariffs on several nations, starting 2 April and not 1 April, since he didn’t want it to coincide with “April Fools Day”.
"On April 2nd, I wanted to make it April 1st but didn't want it to be accused of April Fools day... it's a lot of money...April 2nd reciprocal tariffs kick in, whatever they tariff us, we will tariff them, a reciprocal back and forth... if they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, we will do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market," Trump said during his speech.
The announcements come after the United States on Tuesday impose a 25 percent tariff on neighboring countries, including key trade partners Canada and Mexico.
Additionally, tariffs on Chinese goods were raised from 10 percent to 20 percent, with the US attributing the move to China’s alleged inaction against fentanyl production.
