The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: US president Donald Trump has said that reciprocal tariffs will kick in for India from April 2.
Meanwhile, Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal is reported to have left on March 3 on an unscheduled visit to the US to initiate negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement.
“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 said while addressing a joint session of the US Congress.
“India charges us 100% tariffs; the system is not fair to the US, it never was. On April 2, reciprocal tariffs kick in. Whatever they tax us, we will tax them. If they use non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we will use non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market,” he said.
Trump’s assertion comes on a day when the US has brought into force higher tariffs on goods imported from Canada, Mexico and China.
Trump’s words, in addition to causing worry, would also indicate that the visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US to strike a deal and stave off tariffs has been unfruitful in this regard.
This, despite the fact that India had reduced tariffs on a number of items even before negotiations began.
India has not addressed whether the meeting between Trump and Modi was effective in actually stalling the hike in tariffs that Trump had been promising.
Reuters has cited sources as saying that Washington wants India to reduce tariffs on automobiles to nil or to negligible levels, but that New Delhi has balked at the idea of reducing tariffs to zero all at once.
Expectations of the Modi government to ‘eliminate’ auto tariffs were “clearer than any other”, one source was quoted as saying of US officials.
India’s auto tariffs are to figure in formal talks ahead of a trade agreement the two sides plan to negotiate this year, a source also told the news agency, which noted that the talks would be beneficial to Tesla’s arrival here.
Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and de facto head of the advisory Department of Government Efficiency, has previously criticised India’s high auto tariffs – its duties on electric vehicles have been as high as around 100%.
Tesla has for the time being signed a lease agreement to open its first showroom in Mumbai and advertised almost two dozen mid-level jobs in India, reported Reuters.
This article was updated at 12:35 am with details about auto tariffs.