Trump Says India Tariffs On American Products 'No Longer Acceptable'

United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday lashed out at India over tariffs imposed on American products.

Donald Trump. (PTI)

NEW DELHI: United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday lashed out at India over tariffs imposed on American products. In a tweet, Trump said: "India has long had a field day putting Tariffs on American products. No longer acceptable!". Trump has repeatedly targetted India after the Centre imposed retaliatory tariffs on 28 US products.

India has long had a field day putting Tariffs on American products. No longer acceptable!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2019

Last month, ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Trump tweeted: "I look forward to speaking with Prime Minister (Narendra) 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 This is unacceptable and the Tariffs must be withdrawn!" Trade ties between the two sides have come under strain after the US last month announced its decision to end preferential trade status for India. As a retaliatory measure, India also announced raising tariffs on 29 goods imported from the US. Modi and Trump held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka last month during which a range of issues were discussed including trade ties between the two countries. The Trump administration terminated India's designation as a beneficiary of the Generalized System of Preference (GSP) of the US on June 5, ending the country's USD 5.6 billion trade concessions under the key programme. The GSP is the largest and oldest US trade preference programme and is designed to promote economic development by allowing duty-free entry for thousands of products from designated beneficiary countries. India was the largest beneficiary of the GSP programme in 2017 with USD 5.7 billion in imports to the US given duty-free status, according to a Congressional Research Service report published in January.