Washington: US President Donald Trump has said that India and China are no longer ‘developing nations’ and were ‘taking advantage’ of the tag from the World Trade Organisation (WTO). He asserted that he will not let it happen anymore.
Donald Trump, championing his ‘America First’ policy, has been a vocal critic of India for levying ‘tremendously high’ duties on US products and has described the country as a ‘tariff king’.
The US and China are currently engaged in a bruising trade war after Trump imposed punitive tariffs on Chinese goods and Beijing retaliated.
Earlier in July, Trump had asked the WTO to define how it designates developing-country status, a move apparently aimed at singling out countries like China, Turkey and India which are getting lenient treatment under the global trade rules.
In a memorandum, Donald Trump had empowered the US Trade Representative (USTR) to start taking punitive actions if any advanced economies are inappropriately taking benefits of the WTO loopholes.
Addressing a gathering Tuesday at Pennsylvania, Trump said India and China – the two economic giants from Asia – are no longer developing nations and as such they cannot taken the benefit from the WTO. However, they are taking the advantage of a ‘developing nation’ tag from the WTO, putting the US to disadvantage, he said.
“They (India and China) were taking advantage of us for years and years,” Trump said.
Trump expressed hope that the WTO will treat the US ‘fairly’. He pointed out that WTO views certain countries like China and India as ‘they’re growing’.
“Well, they’ve grown,” Trump said and warned that the US will not let such countries to take advantage of the WTO. “We’re not letting that happen anymore…Everybody is growing but us,” Trump added.
PTI
