US President Trumps attacks India; Claims Indian Nation agreed to cut Tariffs way down after ‘being exposed’:

US President Trumps attacks India; Claims Indian Nation agreed to cut Tariffs way down after ‘being exposed’ U.S. President Donald Trump claimed India has agreed to lower its tariffs "way down," reiterating his assertion that the country imposes large tariffs on American products, making it impossible to sell them. "Our country, from an economic, financial, and trade standpoint, has been absolutely ripped off by almost every country in the world," President Trump said in remarks from the Oval Office on Friday. "Canada, Mexico, and then you just continue down the list. India charges us massive tariffs; you can't even sell anything into India. It is almost restricting. It's restrictive. We do very little business inside," he remarked. "They've agreed, by the way, to reduce their tariffs significantly now that someone has finally exposed them for what they've done. And the same is true for China and many other countries, and the European Union has been a horrible abuser of this country," Mr. Trump continued. Trump's comments came during Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal's visit to the United States for trade discussions with his counterpart Howard Lutnick. This was the third time this week that Trump blasted India's high tariffs. On Thursday, Trump stated India is a very high-tariff nation and emphasised that reciprocal tariffs on countries who levy taxes on American goods will take effect on April 2. Trump attacked the high tariffs charged by India and other countries in his first address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, calling them "very unfair". Mr. Trump has previously referred to India as a "tariff king" and a "big abuser". During a joint news conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the White House last month, Mr. Trump stated that India has "been very strong on tariffs". "I don't blame them; it's just a different way of doing business. It's really difficult to sell into India because they have trade restrictions and very high tariffs," he remarked. India said on Friday that it is trying to strengthen trade ties with the United States, especially by lowering tariff and non-tariff obstacles under a bilateral trade agreement. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United States last month, both parties announced plans to negotiate a mutually beneficial, multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), External Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Randhir Jaiswal said in New Delhi. Commerce Minister Goyal was in the United States and spoke with his counterparts, and the two countries are currently pursuing discussions on a multi-sector bilateral trade agreement, he added. Our goal through the BTA is to strengthen and deepen India-US two-way trade throughout the goods and services sector, increase market access, reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers, and deepen supply chain integration between the two countries," says Mr. Jaiswal.