'Great friend of mine, but ...': What Donald Trump said about PM Modi and India in tariff speech

United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday called Prime Minister Modi his 'great friend' while imposing his ambitious retaliatory tariff on India.

Trump said Washington would impose "discounted reciprocal tariffs" of 26 per cent on New Delhi.

"India, very, very tough. 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, we charge them almost nothing, for years and years and decades, and it was only seven years ago, when I came in, we started with China and we took in hundreds of billions of dollars from China in tariffs," Trump said holding the chart that mentioned list of countries and tariff charges.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Washington, D.C., in February, less than a month after President Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term in the White House.

Trump has previously referred to India as the "tariff king" and a "big abuser" in global trade. During a joint press conference with Modi at the White House on February 13, Trump remarked that India had "been very strong on tariffs," adding, "I don't blame them, necessarily, but it's a different way of doing business. It's very hard to sell into India because they have trade barriers, very strong tariffs."

Highlighting the US trade deficit with India, which he estimated at nearly $100 billion, Trump stated that he and Modi had agreed to begin negotiations to correct "long-running disparities that should have been taken care of over the last four years – but they didn't do that." The goal, he said, was to "sign an agreement" that would create "a level playing field, which we really think we're entitled to, and he does also, in fairness, so we're going to work on that very hard."

While announcing the new tariffs, Trump defended the move by saying the US had been "very kind" to trading partners and would now charge them "approximately half of the levies they impose on US goods."