Trump attacks countries over tariffs.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday accused other countries of "robbing" the United States on trade and threatened to stop doing business with them altogether as he pushed his "America First" agenda at a Group of Seven nations summit.
Alongside the G7 countries, India also came for a tongue lashing and Trump even threatened to cut trade ties with countries who are 'being unfair on trade'. India and US have increasingly had a cordial relationship in the last few years, but this attack against India in a global platform is likely to put that relationship to test.
Trump, who angered Washington's top allies last week when he imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from Canada, the European Union and Mexico, issued a broad indictment of global trade, with swipes at the G7 and India. "We're like the piggy bank that everybody is robbing," he said at a press conference before making an early exit from the two-day summit in La Malbaie, Quebec, where he met with leaders of Canada, Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Japan.
He said trade practices of many countries are very unfair to US farmers. "This isn’t just G7. I mean, we have India, where some of the tariffs are 100% ... And we charge nothing," he said. Expressing his frustration, Trump said, " Can't do that. We are talking to many countries, we are talking to all countries.""And it's going to stop. Or we'll stop trading with them. And that's a very profitable answer..".
Trump, who repeated that his tariffs are meant to protect U.S. industry and workers from unfair international competition, said he had suggested to the other G7 leaders that all trade barriers, including tariffs and subsidies, be eliminated. He also denied the summit had been contentious, a remark that contradicted what one G7 official described as an "extraordinary" exchange on Friday in which Trump repeated a list of trade grievances, mainly concerning the EU and Canada.
Trump earlier had criticised India over high tariffs on Harley- Davidson. Calling Modi a "beautiful man", Trump said he was informed of reduction in tariffs on imported motorcycles by the Indian PM but the US was getting nothing with the cuts in the customs duty.
At a gathering of governors of all the states at the White House, Trump said: "Now, the prime minister, who I think is a fantastic man, called me the other day and said we are lowering it to 50%. I said okay, but so far we're getting nothing. So we get nothing. He gets 50%, and they think we're doing -- like they're doing us a favour. That's not a favour."
"I wasn't sure -- he said it so beautifully. He's a beautiful man. And he said, 'I just want to inform you that we have reduced it to 75, but we have further reduced it to 50'. And I said, huh. What do I say? Am I supposed to be thrilled? And that's not good for you people, especially as governors. It's just not right. And we have many deals like that," Trump said, according to PTI.
With Agency inputs
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