It's really an assault on our country. It's been an assault. They know better than anybody. Other countries have added production capacity that far exceeds demand. And flooded the world market with cheap metal that is subsidised by foreign governments, creating jobs for their country and taking away jobs from our country," he said. The import tariffs are likely to face retaliation from America's top trading partners, the European Union and China. Major Asian nations reacted sharply to Trump's decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, warning of damage to close relations amid industry calls for retaliation. Japan said the move would have a "big impact" on the countries' close bilateral ties, while China said it was "resolutely opposed" to the decision and South Korea said it may file a complaint to the World Trade Organisation. Trump also pledged to impose "reciprocal tax" on countries like China and India if they do not match America's tariff. "We're going to be doing a reciprocal tax programme, at some point so that if China is going to charge us 25 per cent or if India is going to charge us 75 per cent and we charge them nothing. They are 50, they are 75 or they are 25, we are going to be doing the same numbers. It's called reciprocal. It's a mirror of tags. So they charge us 50, we would charge them 50," Trump said in his remarks before signing the two proclamations. Trump in recent weeks had complained India's tariff on the import of American motorcycles - specifically Harley-Davidsons - was too high. The US President said the stage for the imposition of reciprocal tax has been set in the first year of his administration. "They will charge us 50, we charge them nothing. Doesn't work. So that's called a reciprocal tax ... mirror attacks. We will be going to be doing a lot of them," Trump said. "American companies have not been treated fairly and some American companies frankly have taken advantage of it and gone to other countries and developed in Mexico, massive automobile plants, taking our jobs away and taking our companies down to Mexico to make the cars and then they send them right across the border without tax, without anything," he said. Referring to a tweet by Tesla head Elan Musk, Trump said China charges 25 per cent duty on American cars whereas it is just 2.5 per cent on import of Chinese cars into the US.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU