The European Council approved a negotiating mandate for trade talks with the U.S., but says it will not finish a free-trade agreement until the steel and aluminum tariffs on its member countries are lifted. The mandate, which was approved April 15, excludes agricultural trade from the talks.
President Donald Trump bemoaned what he said are unfair trade practices levied against the U.S. by “many countries,” singling out and criticizing India while referring to its trade practices as “stupid trade.” Trump, speaking at a Republican Jewish Coalition Leadership meeting on April 6 in Las Vegas, accused India of imposing 100 percent tariffs on imports from the U.S. “Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi is charging us over 100 percent for many things,” Trump said. “We’re charging them nothing for similar or the same products, and I have senators who say you can’t do that. It’s not free trade ... it's stupid trade.” India has repeatedly delayed retaliatory tariffs on goods imported from the U.S. -- with the most recent delay coming April 1 (see 1904010010) -- in response to U.S.’s Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs. During the rally, Trump also advocated for additional unspecified tariffs while accusing several unnamed countries of “charging us 200 and 250 and 300 percent” tariffs. “And we charge them nothing,” he said. “It’s OK to charge them something.”
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer touched on India’s potential retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. and criticized the country’s “significant tariff and nontariff barriers” in the 2019 National Trade Estimate on Foreign Trade Barriers. The 540-page report, released March 29, said India’s tariff barriers “impede imports of U.S. products into India” and was critical of India’s “complex” customs system and failure to “observe transparency requirements.”