World Bank contradicts Trump’s comment over higher tariffs imposed by India on American goods

• According to World Bank, Donald Trump has simply window dressed the level of tariffs in India by calling the nation ‘tariff king’.
  
  
• Data with the international financial institution indicates that while India may have ‘high’ import tariffs, they aren’t even the highest among the Southeast Asian countries.
  
  
• Officials with the World Bank also believe that tariffs have been consecutively reduced since the lndian economy’s liberalisation in 1992.
  

The World Bank and the President of the United States, Donald Trump, do not share a common opinion in on the level of taxes imposed by India on imported goods. In fact, the international financial institution slammed Trump’s comment calling India a ‘tariff king’.

While India certainly has relatively higher tariffs in comparison to the rest of the world, data with the World Bank indicates that it’s not even the highest among the South-Asian countries.

According to Shanta Devarajan, a Senior Director for Development at the World Bank, while tariffs in India certainly high circa 1991, they have since then reduced high taxes levied on many goods. In comparison to ten years ago, the taxation system is much more liberal.

Devarajan believes that liberalisation has actually helped India to boost its economic growth.

Trump had earlier alleged that India imposes tariffs as high as 100% on many American goods. He even cited an example of Harley Davidson motorcycles on which India had imposed a 100% tariff.

The US President added that many other American products also face high tariffs, which act as a barrier to entry in the Indian market, instigating that consumers are worse off since, as a result of these high tariffs, they will have access to fewer imported products.