Former US President Donald Trump on Tuesday called India an “abuser” on the issue of import tariffs. However, he praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he is a “fantastic man”.
While campaigning in Michigan, the Republican presidential candidate said he would meet PM Modi during the latter’s visit to the United States next week.
PM Modi will be visiting the US from September 21 to 23.
“So when India, which is a very big abuser. He (Modi) happens to be coming to meet me next week, and Modi, he’s fantastic. I mean, fantastic man. A lot of these leaders are fantastic,” Trump said, reiterating that India imposes heavy tariffs on imports.
Donald Trump said India is very tough. He also said, “These people are the sharpest people”.
“They’re not a little bit backwards…You know the expression, they’re at the top of their game, and they use it against us. But India is very tough. Brazil is very tough … China is the toughest of all, but we were taking care of China with the tariffs,” he added
Donald Trump said if he wins the elections, the US would do what he called a reciprocal trade.
“If anybody charges us 10 cents, if they charge us USD 2, if they charge us a hundred per cent, 250, we charge them the same thing. And what’s going to happen? Everything’s going to disappear, and we’re going to end up having free trade again. And if it doesn’t disappear, we’re going to take in a lot of money,” he added.
Trump was attending his first campaign event after the second assassination attempt on him in Florida.
PM Modi will begin his trip with the Quad Leaders’ Summit. The summit will be attended by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia and Prime Minister Kishida Fumio of Japan. It will be hosted by US Presient Joe Biden.
Modi will then travel to New York and address a mega community event in Long Island on September 22.
