Trump Says India Will Have to Pay 10% Additional Tariff 'If They Are in BRICS'
New Delhi: Just days after BRICS countries voiced “serious concerns about the rise of unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures,” terming such actions “illegal and arbitrary”, US President Donald Trump lashed out at BRICS and said that India – one of the five founding members of BRICS – would be charged an additional 10 per cent tariff.
“They (India) have to pay 10 per cent if they are in BRICS, because BRICS was set up to hurt us, to degenerate our dollar, to take it off as a standard. That is okay if they want to play their game, I can play their game too. So anybody that is in BRICS is getting a 10 per cent charge. If they (India), they’re gonna have to pay a 10 per cent tariff,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday (July 8), reported Hindustan Times.
Trump’s warning for India comes after a joint statement criticising tariffs was issued on July 6 by BRICS countries including India following the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Without explicitly naming the US, the statement had described the “indiscriminate rising of tariffs and non-tariff measures” as part of a wider trend of trade-restrictive practices that risk reducing global trade, disrupting supply chains, and creating uncertainty in the global economy.
Responding to a question from reporters about India and the statement issued by BRICS nations, Trump said that countries seeking to challenge the dollar “are gonna have to pay a big price.”
“I don't think any of them is willing to pay that price,” he added.
'We're close to making a deal with India'
“I thought BRICS was, and I said it a year ago, that it largely broke up, but there are a couple of them hanging around. BRICS is not, in my opinion, a serious threat, but what they try to do is to destroy the dollar so that another country can take over and be the standard, and we are not gonna lose the standard,” said Trump.
Earlier, Trump had said that any Country aligning themselves with what he termed as “the Anti-American policies of BRICS”, will be charged an additional 10 per cent Tariff.
Trump’s statement on India and additional tariffs come at a time when both the countries are trying to make a trade deal. Trump told reporters on Tuesday that the US is “close to making a deal with India,” reported Times of India.
Now we've made a deal with United Kingdom. We've made a deal with China. We're close to making a deal with India,” said Trump.
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