“Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades, and now it’s our turn to start using them against those other countries. On average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, – Mexico, 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 in an address to the Joint Session of the Congress, the first of his second term in the White House.
“India charges us auto tariffs higher than 100%,” he continued.Soon after assuming office, President Trump said his administration would “soon” impose reciprocal tariffs. During his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the US Capital, Trump said India will not be spared from Washington’s reciprocal tariffs and emphasised that “nobody can argue with me” on tariff structure.
“China’s average tariff on our products is twice… and South Korea’s average tariff is four times higher. Think of that, four times higher. And we give so much help militarily and in so many other ways to South Korea. But that’s what happens. This is happening by friend and foe. This system is not fair to the United States. It never was,” he said.
Trump added that from April 2, reciprocal tariffs will kick in, and whatever “they tariff us, other countries, we will tariff them. That’s reciprocal back and forth. Whatever they tax us, we will tax them. If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we will do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market.
“They don’t even allow us in their market. We will take in trillions and trillions of dollars that create jobs like we have never seen before. I did it with China, and I did it with others, and the Biden administration couldn’t do anything about it because there was so much money they couldn’t do anything about it,” Trump said.
“We have been ripped off for decades by nearly every country on Earth, and we will not let that happen any longer,” Trump added.
First Published: Mar 5, 2025 9:42 am IS
