Trump says India will 'substantially' cut tariffs, signals major US tariff moves

US President Donald Trump said Monday that he has heard that India is going to drop its tariffs substantially. Over the next two days, Trump said he would announce a series of tariff measures, including the start of reciprocal tariffs.

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“I heard that India just a little while ago is going to be dropping its tariffs very substantially. I said, why didn't somebody do this a long time ago? A lot of countries are going to be dropping their tariffs,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office of the White House.

Responding to a question, Trump said he is not worried at all about some of the US allies moving towards China as a result of the new set of tariffs. “No, I'm not worried about it. I'm not worried about it,” he said.

“I think they have a chance of doing better actually with the tariffs. It can actually help them in a certain way and I think a lot of them will drop their tariffs because they've been unfairly tariffing the United States for years,” he said.

“If you look at the European Union on cars, the European Union already dropped their tariff down to 2.5 percent. It was announced a couple of days ago, which is a very small tariff. The United States charged very little,” said the president.

Trump said “we have some big things we're going to be announcing over the next two days”. It is going to be something that's going to bring a lot of wealth back to the country, he asserted, adding that other countries are understanding it because they've been ripping US for 50 years longer.

“I call it a lot of different names, but it's really, in a sense, it's a rebirth of a country because how we could have afforded to do what we did, we helped everybody and they don't help us. The term I like best probably is the liberation of America,” he said.

“It's a liberation of this country because it's incredible. Look, we have 36 trillion in debt for a reason and that accumulates over a long period of time. What you're going to be seeing over the next couple of days will be very inspiring to a lot of people. They had a lot of auto plants being built in a certain country,” said the US President.

As a result of his tariffs, Trump said huge investment is pouring into the US. “Chip companies from Taiwan are coming in the biggest, Mr. Wayne. He's big. I think you are a smart guy, aren't you? I've been reading about him over the years, but he controls a large portion of the chip business as you know ...,” he said.

“They're going to be investing two or $300 billion Apple is investing $500 billion They always built their places in China that, now he's building building here ...  Because of the election, but maybe more importantly, because of the tariffs ... But we have many, many companies that you haven't even heard of, but I think we'll be at USD5 trillion very soon ......We're already three and a half, and we have commitments, vertical commitments, for a lot more,” he told reporters.

“Remember, there are no tariffs if you do your product here, if you build whatever it is in the USA. One of the things we're also trying to get is, if you build, if you buy a car that was built in the USA, you get a deduction on interest. So you borrow money to buy a car if it's built in the USA. Never been done before. It's a big deduction for people that really aren't used to deductions,” Trump said.

(Courtesy: www.5wh.com)