‘They tax us, we tax them,’ Trump threatens reciprocal tariffs on India

The incoming Trump 2.0 administration has threatened “reciprocal taxes” on countries, including India, if they levy high tariffs on American products, US president-elect Donald Trump said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Trump’s threat came when he was asked about a possible trade deal with China, against who the president-elect has threatened the highest tariffs from day one of his administration in January. Trump had also warned Canada and Mexico of 25% tariffs if they fail to stop the flow of drugs and immigrants into the US

This week, Trump particularly mentioned India and Brazil as the countries that levy high duties on American goods.

“The word reciprocal is important because if somebody charges us—India, we don’t have to talk about our own—if India charges us 100%, do we charge them nothing for the same? You know, they send in a bicycle and we send them a bicycle. They charge us 100 and 200. India charges a lot. Brazil charges a lot. If they want to charge us, that’s fine, but we’re going to charge them the same thing,” Trump said at the press conference held at his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago.

Trump also said imposing high tariffs will not hurt the US–as forecasted by some analysts–but instead make the country “rich.”

Howard Lutnick, Trump’s commerce secretary nominee, also echoed the Republican leader’s stance, stressing that “reciprocity” will be a significant focus for the Trump administration.

He said, “How you treat us is how you should expect to be treated.”

The US is India’s top export destination. Provisional data for November released earlier this week showed India’s exports to the US totaled $5.7 billion, down 2.58% from last November. However, exports for the April–November period increased by 5.27% year-on-year to $53 billion.

While it was not immediately clear how Trump’s comments will be perceived by New Delhi, India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar said following Trump’s presidential win that India was not among the countries that is “nervous” by Trump’s return to the White House.

“I know today a lot of countries are nervous about the US. Let’s be honest about it. We are not one of them,” Jaishankar said last month at an event.

Trump has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling him a “great leader” and “a great man,” but has slammed India’s tariffs.

“Modi has done a fantastic job bringing India together. But India’s tariffs are some of the highest-even higher than China’s in many ways. They charge with a smile, but it’s still a charge,” he had remarked.