Increased India tariffs ‘unacceptable’, must be withdrawn, says Trump

Ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Donald Trump on Thursday said that India should withdraw the “unacceptable” high tariffs recently imposed by the country on Washington.

Trump also indicated that he will raise this issue with Modi during their ensuing meeting on the sidelines of G-20 Summit.

This comes a day after US Secretary of state Mike Pompeo held bilateral talks with his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar and acknowledged that there were issues between the two countries on trade and committed themselves to remove differences between them.

India had imposed retaliatory tariffs on 25 American goods, less than two weeks after US President Donald Trump announced an end to preferential trade treatment for India over the trade barriers.

Last year, India had announced tariffs in retaliation to higher US import duties on steel and aluminium. Trump has repeatedly called out India for its high tariffs.

“I look forward to speaking with Prime Minister Modi about the fact that India, for years having put very high Tariffs against the United States, just recently increased the Tariffs even further. This is unacceptable and the Tariffs must be withdrawn!,” said Trump in a tweet ahead of the meeting.

Meanwhile, Modi arrived in Japan for the G20 Summit on Thursday, during which he will attend important plurilateral meetings and meet with the world leaders including Trump. This will be Prime Minister Modi’s sixth G20 Summit which is being held at Osaka on June 28-29.

In his departure statement, he said that issues such as women empowerment, artificial intelligence and common efforts to address challenges like terrorism will be high on his agenda.

Besides Modi, the US president will meet his Chinese and Russian counterparts Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit.