External affairs minister S Jaishankar NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said that he had an open conversation with commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, who is in the US to discuss a bilateral trade agreement, about tariff and added that US administration is moving towards multipolarity, which suits India’s interests. This came after US President Donald Trump announced his plan to impose reciprocal tariffs from April 2.During a session titled ‘India’s rise and role in the world’ at the Chatham House think tank in London on Wednesday evening, Jaishankar said, “We see a president and an administration which, in our parlance, is moving towards multipolarity and that is something that suits India.”On the specific issue of tariffs, the minister noted that Piyush Goyal is currently in Washington to discuss a bilateral trade pact, following discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump at the White House last month.”We had a very open conversation about it (tariffs) and the result of that conversation was that we agreed on the need for a bilateral trade agreement,” he said when asked about Trump’s tariff warnings.Trump slams tariffs on IndiaUS President Trump announced on Wednesday that retaliatory tariffs would commence from April 2 against India imposing higher duties on American imports.During his address to the US Congress, Trump criticised the tariffs levied by India and other nations, including China, labelling them as “very unfair”.Trump expressed his intention to implement equivalent tariffs on foreign imports as those nations impose on US exports.”Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades and now it’s our turn to start using them against those other countries. On average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, – Mexico and Canada – Have you heard of them – and countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs than we charge them. It’s very unfair,” Trump stated on Tuesday night in his longest address to the Joint Session of the Congress.”India charges us auto tariffs higher than 100 per cent,” he stated.In his first address of his second White House term, Trump noted: “China’s average tariff on our products is twice… and South Korea’s average tariff is four times higher. Think of that, four times higher. And we give so much help militarily and in so many other ways to South Korea. But that’s what happens. This is happening by friend and foe. This system is not fair to the United States. It never was.”‘India charges a lot’Donald Trump reaffirmed in December about his plan to implement reciprocal taxation policies towards India. Previously having labelled India as “tariff king”, he criticised New Delhi for imposing “high tariffs” on products manufactured in America.”Reciprocal. If they tax us, we tax them the same amount. They tax us. We tax them. And they tax us. Almost in all cases, they’re taxing us, and we haven’t been taxing them,” stated the president-elect during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago.He further elaborated, “The word reciprocal is important because if somebody charges us – India, we don’t have to talk about our own – if India charges us 100 per cent, do we charge them nothing for the same? You know, they send in a bicycle and we send them a bicycle. They charge us 100 and 200. India charges a lot. Brazil charges a lot. If they want to charge us, that’s fine, but we’re going to charge them the same thing.”
‘US moving towards multipolarity suits India’: Jaishankar after Trump imposes reciprocal tariff | India News
