Washington: US President Donald Trump announced a baseline rate of 10 per cent on all imports and higher individualised rates for dozens of countries, including 26 per cent for India, 34 per cent for China and 20 per cent for the EU.
The levies are half of what the US deemed the trading partner countries imposed on goods from America, a combined total of tariffs and non-monetary barriers. Trump said the lower rates are because Americans are “kind” people.
Other countries hit with higher rates are the UK, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, the EU, Vietnam, Cambodia, Switzerland, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Many of the targeted countries are treaty allies of the US, but Trump said, friends have been more unfair to the US on matters of trade than foes, reiterating his long-running beef with countries with high trade surpluses with the US or those that he has perceived levy high import duties on American goods.
“India, very, very tough,” President Trump said Wednesday, reading out the new levies from a chart brought up to him by Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick at the presentation.
“Very, very tough. The Prime Minister just left. He’s a great friend of mine, but I said, ‘You’re a friend of mine, but you’re not treating us right’. They charge us 52 per cent. You have to understand that we charge them almost nothing.”
The Indian levy on imports from the US — as calculated by the US in this instance follows a formula that includes both monetary and non-monetary levies and barriers. The new American levy on imports from India was put at half, 26 per cent.
The US President was referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the White House in February, among Trump’s first foreign visitors. He has spoken warmly of the Prime Minister and their friendship but has also refused to concede because of it.
He went on to explain why the reciprocal tariffs are not as highly feared. “Because we are being very kind, we’re kind people, very kind,” Trump said, explaining the new levies. “We will charge them approximately half of what they are and have been charging us, so the tariffs will not be reciprocal. I could have done that, I guess, but it would have been tough for a lot of countries who didn’t want to do that.”
Reading out from the chart, Trump said the Chinese levy on US imports added up to 67 per cent, “so we’re going to be charging a discounted reciprocal tariff of 34 per cent, I think; in other words, they charge us, we charge them, we charge them less.”
About the EU, a collective of 27 European countries of which 23 are members of the US-led military alliance NATO, he said, “They’re very tough, very, very tough traders. You know, you think of the European Union, very friendly. They rip us off. It’s so sad to see. It’s so pathetic. 39 per cent we’re going to charge them. 20 per cent, so we’re charging them essentially half.”
Vietnam, he said, had “great negotiators, great people. They like me. I like them. The problem is they charge us 90 per cent. We’re going to charge them 46 per cent tariff.”
Taiwan, which he said, “took all of our computer chips and semiconductors. We used to be the king, right? We were everything. We had all of it. Now we have almost none of it, except the biggest company is coming in. They’re going to have, we’re going to end up with almost 40 per cent.”
Setting up the announcement, Trump said, “April 2, 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to make America wealthy again. Going to make it wealthy, good and welcome. For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike.”
As before, he used the phrase Liberation Day to describe the event.
Trump views the reciprocal tariffs and other tariffs that he has announced as tools for reducing the trade deficit with trading countries, bringing back manufacturing to the US, forcing trading countries to lower their levies on American goods and removing trade barriers to allow American companies more access to their markets.
The American President has so far announced four rounds of tariffs — a 25 per cent tariff on all steel and aluminium imports, a 25 per cent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico, and 10 per cent tariff on China, and a 25 per cent duty on all imported cars, trucks and auto parts. He has indicated more sector-based tariffs, such as pharmaceuticals.
