Washington DC:
US President Donald Trump is planning to announce tariffs on more products as he pushes to shrink America’s trade deficits, boost domestic manufacturing and achieve other policy goals. According to the President, new levies will imposed on cars, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals “over the next month or sooner”.
The Trump administration has already announced a plan to start imposing 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports on March 12. Mr Trump is also seeking to slap “reciprocal” taxes on US imports in addition to his push for duties on cars, chips, and other items.
“I am going to be announcing tariffs on cars and semiconductors and chips … drugs and pharmaceuticals and lumber, probably, and some other things over the next month or sooner,” he said on Wednesday during a forum hosted by the Future Investment Initiative Institute.
“It’s going to have a big impact on America,” the President added, before reiterating that companies that do not manufacture their goods in America will face tariffs.
“We’re bringing our businesses back. If they don’t make their product in America, then very simply, they have to pay a tariff,” he said.
“If they do make their product in America, they don’t have to pay any tariff, which will bring … It’s all going to bring trillions of dollars into our treasury or it’s going to mean that there won’t be any taxes because we want to have a fair base.”
Since returning to office on January 20, Mr Trump has initiated numerous tariffs and made even more frequent threats to impose levies on imported goods. They range from broad ones — a universal tariff on foreign-imported goods — to ones aimed at specific sectors, regions, or countries in an effort to get others to meet his policy demands.
According to Mr Trump, his action on tariffs is already producing results. “I do want to say, while I’m up here, I’ve been contacted by some of the biggest companies in the world. And because of what we’re doing economically and through tariffs and taxes and incentives, they want to come back into the United States. And we’ll be announcing various very large companies, the biggest, actually, and they’ll be coming back, having to do with chips and having to do also with cars,” he said.
Tariffs On India
During a joint televised interview with billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday, Presidnet Trump stressed that India will not be spared from Washington’s reciprocal tariffs. In a conversation with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, he reiterated his stance on global trade and existing tariff structures between the US and its partners.
He called his recent meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the US and said, “I told Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi yesterday – he was here – I said, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do: reciprocal. Whatever you charge, I’m charging.”
“He (PM Modi) goes, ‘No, no, I don’t like that.’ ‘No, no, whatever you charge, I’m going to charge.’ I’m doing that with every country,’ he added.
India has some of the world’s highest tariffs on certain imports from the US, particularly in the automobile sector, where duties on foreign cars can reach up to 100 per cent. Mr Musk, sitting beside President Trump, confirmed this, saying, ” It’s 100 per cent – auto imports are 100 per cent.”
President Trump argued that such tariffs make it nearly impossible for American companies to sell in India unless they establish manufacturing plants there, which he considers “unfair” to the US economy.
Under his proposed reciprocal tariff system, the US would impose the same level of tariffs on Indian imports as India levies on American goods.
