In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling against his tariffs, US President Donald Trump stated that "nothing changes" in the trade deal with India.
In a major setback for Trump's economic agenda, the US Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling by Chief Justice John Roberts, ruled that the tariffs imposed by Trump on countries around the world were illegal, and that the President had exceeded his authority when imposing these tariffs.
Trump criticized the Supreme Court justices, calling them "foolish and lapdogs." "The Supreme Court's ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing, and I am ashamed of certain members of the Court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what is right for our country," Trump said in a press conference on Friday.
At the press conference, Trump reiterated his claim that he resolved the India-Pakistan conflict last summer using the threat of tariffs, asserting that New Delhi, at his request, "backed off" from buying Russian oil, and that the ruling would have no effect on the trade deal announced by Washington and New Delhi earlier this month. He also spoke about his "great" relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
When asked whether the framework for an interim trade agreement with India, expected to be signed soon, stands in the face of the Supreme Court ruling, Trump said "nothing changes".
"Nothing changes. They (India) will be paying tariffs, and we will not be paying tariffs. So the deal with India is that they pay tariffs. This is a reversal from what it was before. As you know, India, and I think Prime Minister Modi is a great man, but he was much smarter than the people that he was against in terms of the United States, he was ripping us off. So we made a deal with India. It's a fair deal now, and we are not paying tariffs to them, and they are paying tariffs. We did a little flip," Trump said.
"The India deal is on…all the deals are on, we're just going to do it" in a different way, Trump said.
In response to another question about his relationship with India, he said, "I think my relationship with India is fantastic and we're doing trade with India. India pulled out of Russia. India was getting its oil from Russia. And they pulled back at my request because we want to settle that horrible war where 25,000 people are dying every month," Trump said.
He said his relationship with Prime Minister Modi "is, I would say, great."
Trump then repeated his claim that he stopped the war between India and Pakistan using tariffs.
"I also stopped the war between India and Pakistan. As you know, there were 10 planes were shot down. That war was going and probably going nuclear. And just yesterday, the Prime Minister of Pakistan said President Trump saved 35 million lives by getting them to stop," Trump said.
"And I did it largely with tariffs. I said, 'Look, you're going to fight, that's fine, but you're not going to do business with the United States, and you're going to pay a 200% tariff, each country'. And they called up and they said, ‘we have made peace’,” Trump said.
On Thursday, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif attended the inaugural meeting of Trump's Board of Peace on Gaza. At that meeting, Trump had said he threatened to put 200 per cent tariffs on India and Pakistan if they didn’t stop the fighting, reiterating the claim he stopped the war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Earlier this month, as the US and India announced they reached a framework for an Interim Agreement on trade, Trump issued an Executive Order removing the 25 per cent punitive tariffs imposed on India for its purchases of Russian oil, with the US President noting the commitment by New Delhi to stop directly or indirectly importing energy from Moscow and purchasing American energy products.
Under the trade deal, Washington would charge a reduced reciprocal tariff on New Delhi, lowering it from 25 per cent to 18 per cent.
In his remarks at the press conference, Trump said he used tariffs to end the war between India and Pakistan, as he lashed out at the Supreme Court for its decision to strike down his sweeping tariffs imposed on countries around the world.
“Tariffs have likewise been used to end five of the eight wars that I settled. I settled eight wars, whether you like it or not, including India, Pakistan, big ones, nuclear, could have been nuclear,” Trump said.
“Prime Minister of Pakistan said yesterday at the great meeting that we had the peace board. He said yesterday that President Trump could have saved 35 million lives by getting us to stop fighting. They were getting ready to do some bad things. But they've given us great national security, these tariffs have,” he said.
Within hours of the Supreme Court ruling, Trump signed a Proclamation imposing a "temporary import duty" to "address fundamental international payment problems and “continue the Administration’s work to rebalance our trade relationships to benefit American workers, farmers, and manufacturers.”
The Proclamation imposes, for a period of 150 days, a 10 per cent ad valorem import duty on articles imported into the United States. The temporary import duty will take effect on February 24 at 12:01 a.m.
