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Trump says he got bike tariffs down in India in ‘two minutes’.. then rues high duties on American whisky

Hindustan Times, Washington | ByYashwant Raj
Jan 25, 2019 12:20 PM IST

United States President Donald Trump said the decision by India last year to cut tariffs on motorcycles by half was a fair deal, but rued the high duties on American whisky.

US president Donald Trump cited Indian tariffs on motorcycle and whisky imports, and other countries and products, to garner support for a White House-drafted legislation introduced by Republicans on Thursday that would grant him the power to levy reciprocal rates on American imports from high-tariff countries.

At a White House event on the Reciprocal Trade Act on Thursday, Trump flashed out a green colour board that had examples of non-reciprocal tariffs from various countries.(Bloomberg)
At a White House event on the Reciprocal Trade Act on Thursday, Trump flashed out a green colour board that had examples of non-reciprocal tariffs from various countries.(Bloomberg)

Trump has been threatening reciprocal tariff against India and other countries for a while that he believes levy high tariffs on American goods. India’s tariff on premium, high-capacity motorcycles, such American Harley-Davidsons and British Triumphs have been in Trump’s crosshairs for a while.

Now, it’s whisky as well.

“India, as an example, has a 150%, hard to believe, tariff on whiskey,” President Trump said at a meeting Thursday with Republicans.

They had gathered in the White House to discuss the US Reciprocal Trade Act, which was introduced earlier by Representative Sean Duffy, a Republican.

“They make whiskey, and they sell it to us. We charge them zero. We sell it to them; they charge us 150%,” he said.

Later, he brought up whisky again.

“So you look at that, and something like whiskey from India, and other things from India -- India is a very high tariff. They charge us a lot of tariffs. But you look at whiskey. So India gets 150%, and we get nothing,” he said.

The US president also did not forget his pet peeve on trade with India - motorcycles.

“Go down, look at motorcycles, as an example,” he said, guiding attention to a section in a chart put on display by a staff member as the senator spoke. “It was 100%. I got them down to 50% just by talking for about two minutes. But it’s still 50% versus 2.4%,” he pointed.

Neither motorcycles nor whisky figure among the top five goods exported to and imported by the United States and India from each other. Whisky and motorbikes are a tiny portion of the bilateral trade between the two countries, which is expected to surpass the $140 billion mark in 2018.

“The US Reciprocal Trade Act will be an incredible tool to bring foreign countries to the negotiating table and to get them to lower their tariffs on our products and also to get rid of their trade barriers, making it really impossible for us to do business,” Trump said, summarising the law.

But the law is not expected to go through despite the president’s backing. Leading Republican senators have come out in opposition to it already and the Democratic-led House of Representatives appears to be in no mood to accommodate the president on anything.

The legislation is being seen as an executive power grab.

India has other, more fundamental, problems with the president’s premise for the attacks.

“His position is grossly ill-informed,” said a source close to the negotiations.

“Some of the most egregious trade issues have cultural moorings,” the source said, which Americans, and not just Trump and his aides, will find difficult to comprehend.

They are cultural as drinking is frowned upon generally in Indian society, and the tariff reflects that social pushback. The high tariffs are intended to discourage drinking, and not profit from it.

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