United States President Donald Trump said that if Tesla built its factory in India to circumvent the tariffs of that country, it would be “unfair" for their own country. Trump made the remarks in an interview with Fox News which was aired on Tuesday.
Last week, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on a US visit, Trump called out the high duty on cars in India. However, Trump had shown a willingness to work towards finalising an early trade deal and resolving their standoff over tariffs.
Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk had earlier criticised India for having nearly 100% import tariffs on EVs. This kind of tariff protects local automakers like Tata Motors.
Tata Motors is the third-largest auto market in the world and EV adoption is at a nascent stage in this company.
Trump said that selling a car is “impossible" for Musk in the South Asian nation.
“Every country in the world takes advantage of us, and they do it with tariffs… It is impossible to sell a car, practically, in, as an example, India," Trump said.
In March, the Indian government unveiled a new EV policy in which the import taxes were lowered substantially to 15%. However, this decrease in taxes was only possible if the carmaker made an investment of $500 million and also agreed to set up a factory.
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that locations have been selected by Tesla for opening two showrooms in the Indian cities of New Delhi and Mumbai.
The company had also posted job ads for 13 mid-level roles in India, as reported by Reuters. Tesla does not manufacture any vehicles currently in India.
Trump said that if Musk decided to set up a factory there, it would be “unfair" to the US.
“Now, if he built the factory in India, that’s okay, but that’s unfair to us. It’s very unfair," said Trump, in the interview.
Trump has made plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on every country which imposes taxes on US imports. This has raised the risk of a global trade war.
