Trump slams India’s high tariff on Harley-Davidson

President Donald Trump has attacked India over its high import tariff on the Harley-Davidson motorcycles and held out the possibility of slapping a “reciprocal tax” on Indian motorcycles sold in the US.

At a meeting on trade with lawmakers, Trump reserved his fire mostly for China over its trade practices, particularly dumping of steel and aluminium, and warned Beijing that he is considering all options, including slapping “tariffs”.

At the same time, Trump appeared to be out to make the point that when it comes to trade, he would not spare even those countries the US regards as its close friends -- be it India, Japan or South Korea.

Bringing up the Harley-Davidson issue, he complained that the iconic American motorcycle firm had to pay a “tremendous tax” to go into a certain country. “I won’t mention the fact that it happens to be India, in this case,” he said, amid laughter.

Then, in an apparent reference to the recent telephone talk that he had with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump said: “And a great gentleman called me from India and he said, we have just reduced the tariff on motorcycles, reduced it down to 50 percent —5-0 — from 75, and even 100 per cent.”

The reduction notwithstanding, Harley-Davidson had to pay 50 to 75 per cent tax, whereas it’s zero tax for Indian motorcycles sold in the US, Trump complained, adding: “They sell thousands and thousands of motorcycles, which a lot of people don’t know, from India into the United States.  You know what our tax is?  Nothing.”

“So I say we should have reciprocal taxes for a case like that,” he said, adding sarcastically: “I’m not blaming India. I think it’s great that they can get away with it. I don’t know why people allowed them to get away with it.  But there’s an example that’s very unfair. And I think we should have a reciprocal tax.”

Accusing various countries of taking advantage of the US, he said: “They’re charging us massive tariffs for us to sell our product into those countries. And when they sell to us, zero. We charge them zero. We’re like the stupid people, and I don’t like to have that anymore.”

Dealing with China, the US’s second largest trading partner after the European Union, Trump dwelt on the $504 billion trade deficit that America is up against. He then charged Beijing with overproducing steel and aluminium and dumping them on the American market, crippling domestic producers.

“I will make a decision that reflects the best interests of the US, including the need to address overproduction in China and other countries.  You have countries that are so overproducing, and what they’re doing is they are dumping it on us,” he said, noting the options under consideration include tariffs or quotas or both.

 “Look, we have rebuilt China….with the money they’ve taken out of the United States….And we have rebuilt countries, like, massively. You look at some of these countries -- look at South Korea, look at Japan, look at so many countries. And then we defend them, on top of everything else,” he said, complaining that the US gets only a fraction of what it costs to defend these countries, be it Japan, South Korea or Saudi Arabia.