US President Donald Trump on Thursday rolled out his plan to increase US tariffs to match the tax rates that other countries charge on imports.
Announcing his plans to to impose reciprocal tariffs, Trump said that the US allies were often "worse than our enemies" on trade.
"On trade, I have decided that for the purpose of fairness, I'll charge reciprocal tariffs - meaning, whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them - no more, no less. In other words, they charge us with tax and tariffs and we will charge them with exact same tax and tariffs," Donald Trump said in a social media post.
Trump said that the US has helped many countries throughout the years at a financial cost and added that it is now the time for the countries to remember this and treat the US fairly.
"This is something that should have been done many years ago. China did it at a level that probably nobody has ever seen before... It is going to mean a tremendous amount of jobs, and ultimately, prices will stay the same," the US President added.
The tariffs come even as the US President will hold a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a two-day visit to the US.
The President also said that he has instructed the Secretary of State, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of the Treasury, and United States Trade Representative (USTR) to do the "work necessary to deliver reciprocity to our System of Trade!"
Speaking on his intentions of imposing reciprocal tariffs, the US President said "India has more tariffs than nearly any other country." The new tariffs come days after Trump already announced tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports beginning on March 12.