Former United States President Donald Trump, who is running for another term, has once again brought up the issue of high taxes imposed by India on certain American products, specifically Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

He has threatened to impose reciprocal taxes if he is elected in the 2024 US presidential elections.

During his first term as president, Trump referred to India as a "tariff king" and in May 2019, he ended India's preferential market access under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) to the United States.

He claimed that India did not provide the US with “equitable and reasonable access to its markets.”

In an interview with Larry Kudlow of Fox Business News, Trump strongly criticized India's high tax rates. He argued that the tax rates in India were excessively high.

“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,” Trump said, news agency PTI reported.

He noted that Indian motorbikes can be sold in the US without any taxes or tariffs, while Harley-Davidson motorcycles face high tariffs when exported to 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.

The former US president also criticised Brazil for its high tariffs.

He mentioned a senator from Pennsylvania who opposed the idea of imposing tariffs on India in response to its high tariffs on US products.

The former president questioned why the US could not charge any tariffs on Indian products if they were charging the US such high rates.

“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 is the leading candidate in the Republican presidential primaries despite facing multiple court cases and indictments. According to major national polls, he has garnered over half of the GOP votes.

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