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Trump names India, China as high-tariff nations, vows tariffs on those that ‘harm’ US
Donald Trump said that US will create a “fair system” where funds will flow into the nation's coffers, ensuring that America becomes “very rich again.”
President Donald Trump has said that the United States will impose tariffs on countries that “harm” America, naming China, India, and Brazil as those with high tariffs.
“We're going to put tariffs on outside countries and outside people that really mean harm to us. Well, they mean us harm, but they basically want to make their country good,” Trump told House Republicans at a Florida retreat on Monday, his first after beginning his second term as president last week.
“Look at what others do. China is a tremendous tariff maker, and India and Brazil and so many other countries. So we're not going to let that happen any longer because we're going to put America first,” he added.
He said that the US will create a “fair system” where funds will flow into the nation's coffers, ensuring that America becomes “very rich again” in a “very short time.”
Trump stressed that the US must return to the system that had once made it “richer and more powerful than ever.”
Reflecting on his inaugural speech, Trump said, “Instead of taxing our citizens to benefit foreign countries, we should impose tariffs and taxes on foreign nations to benefit our citizens.”
“Under the American first economic model, as tariffs on other countries go up, taxes on American workers and businesses will come down and massive numbers of jobs and factories will come home,” he said.
Earlier, Trump has already talked about slapping “100 per cent tariffs” on the BRICS grouping, a bloc that includes India as well.
In his speech, Trump urged companies to establish manufacturing operations in the US if they wanted to avoid tariffs.
“If you want to stop paying the taxes or the tariffs, you have to build your plant right here in America. That's what's going to happen at record levels. We're going to have more plants built in the next short period of time than anybody ever envisioned before because the incentive is going to be there because they have no tariff whatsoever,” he said.
The president stated that the US will back companies setting up plants in America, especially in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and steel.
Trump added that his administration would also be placing tariffs on steel, aluminum, copper and other materials required by the US military. “We have to bring production back to our country. There was a time when we made one ship a day, and now we can't build a ship. We don't know what the hell we're doing. It's all gone to other locations and other lands,” he said.
“To further return production to the United States, we're going to environmentally free up our rare earth minerals. We have some of the best rare earth anywhere in the world, but we're not allowed to use it because the environmentalists got there first,” said the president in his address.
With AP inputs
