Indian tariffs on US products ‘no longer acceptable’: Trump

Washington, July 9 (IANS) US President Donald Trump again hit out at India over the issue of tariffs on Tuesday, less than a fortnight after he discussed the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Japan and both agreed to address the issue.

Trump's attack in a tweet came just as trade officials of the two countries are preparing to meet to address the issue as a follow up to the talks between him and Modi in Osaka on the sidelines of G20 Summit.

In the tweet, Trump said, "India has long had a field day putting tariffs on American products. No longer acceptable!"

Earlier, before his meeting with Modi on June 28, Trump had tweeted: "I look forward to speaking with Prime Minister Modi about the fact that India, for years having put very high tariffs against the United States, just recently increased the tariffs even further. This is unacceptable and the tariffs must be withdrawn!"

India slapped tariffs on 28 US products including Harley-Davidson motorcycles and US-grown apples, after Washington withdrew its long-standing preferential status on June 1 that exempted billions of dollars worth of products made there from US levies.

During their meeting, Modi told Trump that India had taken some action after the General System of Preferences (GSP) was revoked by the US and "we should now look forward and we should see how we can resolve some of these issues," according to Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale.

"There was a discussion on trade. Both sides aired their concerns, both sides spoke about the interest of the other side and what was agreed was that the trade ministers of both countries would meet at an early date and would try and sort out these issues," Gokhale had told the media after the meeting.

"President Trump, of course, welcomed this idea," the Foreign Secretary had added.

He had said the two sides would first have technical discussions.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar on July 4 said that trade officials of the two countries would meet soon to discuss the trade issue.

"It is important to understand that in any relationship that is multi-dimensional like India and the US, there are bound to be certain differences and perspectives where we share a different approach. How we handle it is the key. And flowing out of the meeting what we agreed was that on all the issues, we will continue to talk," he said.