'Heard India will be dropping its tariffs substantially': Donald Trump ahead of announcing reciprocal tariff

During a press briefing at the Oval Office in the White House, President Trump was asked about reciprocal tariffs that he would officially announce on April 2 and if that would drift away some of US allies.

In his response, Trump said, "I think a lot of them will drop their tariffs because they were being done in an unfair way. They've done this for years. If you look at the European Union, they already dropped their tariffs on cars down to two-and-a-half per cent. It was announced a couple of days ago. And I think I heard just a short while ago that India will be dropping its tariffs very substantially."

However, India has not given any official confirmation on the matter.

President Trump also denied that his reciprocal tariffs might push US allies and partners more towards China. "No, it won't," he said.

India and the US have been negotiating on a mutually beneficial trade deal even amid repeated reciprocal tariff threats by Trump.

The US President has called April 2 "Liberation Day" for the United States.

"A lot of countries will drop their tariffs," claimed Trump.

The US president has labelled India as the "tariff king" several times and called it one of the biggest "abusers of tariffs".

Earlier in the day, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt spoke about the "unfair" trade practices in India's tariff structure, highlighting how India imposes 100 percent tariffs on agricultural imports from the US.

She also mentioned similar high tariff structures by the EU (50 percent on American dairy products), Japan (700 percent on rice), and Canada (300 per cent on butter and cheese). These hinder and hurt US exports and lead to imbalances and trade deficits in the US, she said.

"This makes it virtually impossible for American products to be imported into these markets, and it puts a lot of Americans out of business and out of work over the past several decades," she added.