Blitz Bureau
WASHINGTON: The United States will start charging reciprocal tariffs from April 2, President Donald Trump said in his address to the Congress, a report published in livemint.com said. Setting the mood lighter while making the announcement, Trump said he did not want to be “accused” of starting the reciprocal tariff rule on April 1 even though he wanted to.
“On April 2, I wanted to make it April 1, but I didn’t want to be accused of April Fools’ Day. This one day will cost us a lot of money, but we’re going to do it on April 2. I’m a very superstitious person (sic),” Trump said. “On April 2, reciprocal tariffs kick in, and whatever they tariff us, other countries, we will tariff them. That’s reciprocal tariff back and forth,” Trump said. “Whatever they tax us, we will tax them,” he added.
Focus on India
According to the news portal report, Trump re-emphasised his stance on charging reciprocal tariffs to countries. He said that it was now time for the US to charge tariffs to countries who have been imposing taxes on US-made goods for decades.
“On average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Mexico, Canada, and countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs than we charge them. It’s very unfair,” he said.
Trump was particularly focused on India’s imposition of high tariffs on the US. “India charges us auto tariffs higher than 100 pc. China’s average tariff on our products is twice what we charge them, and South Korea’s average tariff is four times higher,” he said.
‘Non-monetary’ tariffs
The US President further revealed that if countries go on the path of imposing ‘non-monetary’ tariffs on the country, he will also go that way. “If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we will do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market. There’s a lot of that (non-monetary tariffs) too.
They don’t even allow us in their market,” he said. Trump promised that this will allow the US to earn ‘trillions’ of dollars and create jobs. “We will take in trillions and trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before. I did it with China and I did it with others, and the Biden administration couldn’t do anything about it,” he said. Trump said that “nearly every country on earth” has been imposing tariffs on the US for decades now, but he will not let that happen any longer.
