President Donald Trump has said he struck a "very fair deal" with India by making it cut the tariffs on the iconic motorcycle Harley-Davidson by half in just about two minutes, but rued the "high" Indian duties on American whisky.
India in February last year slashed the customs duty on imported motorcycles like Harley-Davidson to 50 per cent after Trump called it "unfair" and threatened to increase the tariff on import of Indian bikes to the US.
At a White House event on the Reciprocal Trade Act on Thursday, Trump flashed out a green colour board with examples of non-reciprocal tariffs from various countries.
"Look at motorcycles as an example. (In) India, it was 100 per cent. I got them down to 50 per cent, just by talking for about two minutes. It's still 50 per cent vs 2.4 per cent (on imported motorcycles to the US). Again, other than that, it's a very fair deal," the president said.
Trump, however, pointed out to the high tariff by India on import of wines.
"India has a very high tariff. They charge a lot of tariffs. You look at whisky... India gets 150 per cent, we get nothing."
Trump said the Reciprocal Trade Act would help to solve the problem once and for all. "Whatever the tariff for a foreign country is, we place the same tariff on us."
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