Trump: Announcing More India Tariffs Within 24 Hours
President Donald Trump, during a call-in interview on CNBC, said that he is going to raise India's 25% reciprocal tariff level "very substantially over the next 24 hours because they’re buying Russian oil, they’re fueling the war machine."
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He also said that within "the next week or so," the administration would announce its tariffs for pharmaceuticals and the semiconductor national security action.
"They make a fortune with pharmaceuticals. And they make our pharmaceuticals in China and Ireland and everything else," he said Aug. 5. "On pharmaceuticals, we’ll be putting a, initially, small tariff on pharmaceuticals. But in one year, one and a half years maximum, it’s going to go to 150%, and then it’s going to go to 250% because we want pharmaceuticals made in our country."
Reporters on the "Squawk Box" program asked the president what would happen if promised investments didn't materialize.
"They bought down their tariffs, so they paid $600 billion and, because of that, I reduced their tariffs from 30% down to 15%," Trump said, referring to the European Union. "And a couple of countries came -- how come the EU is paying less than us? And I said, 'Well, because they gave me $600 billion.' And that’s a gift. That’s not like, you know, a loan, by the way. That’s not a loan that, oh, gee, in three years, comes up [and] we have to pay it back. There’s nothing to pay back. They gave us $600 billion that we can invest in anything we want."
The European Union described this as private companies' investment decisions, not a donation to the U.S. government. "EU companies have expressed interest in investing at least $600 billion (ca. €550 billion) in various sectors in the US by 2029, further boosting the already significant €2.4 trillion in existing investment," the bloc said.
If the money doesn't arrive, Trump said, then he'll hike tariffs to 35%.
CNBC reporters asked Trump about the prospects for a comprehensive trade agreement with China, and he said that China is very reliant on the U.S. market, and when tariffs were at 145%, "China was collapsing."
He added, "I think we’ll make a good deal. It’s not imperative, but I think we’re going to make a good deal."
Trump bragged about market access he got in Japan, the EU and South Korea, and said those countries were closed before. (South Korea had lowered its tariffs on most goods in a free-trade agreement with the U.S. in 2012.)
"If you did business in Japan, they would arrest you. You’re not allowed to do any business. And now Japan has totally opened up their country. They’re even taking our rice, which is something that nobody said was possible. But more importantly, they’re taking our cars. They’re taking the very beautiful Ford 150 which does very well, and I’m sure we’ll do very well there," Trump said.
Trump obliquely referred to the 39% tariff for Switzerland, the highest in Europe, and said he was not willing to lose $41 billion a year with the country -- "because I view deficit as a loss," he explained.
"I spoke to their Prime Minister. The woman was nice, but she didn’t want to listen," he said, complaining that the Swiss were asking for a 1% tariff on their exports.
"I said, 'We have a $41 billion deficit, and you want to – you want to pay 1% tariffs. You wanted 1%.' I said, 'You’re not going to pay 1%.'"