The Supreme Leader of United States Donald Trump took a dig on India for high import tariff on Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
Mr. President during a discussion with Congress members called it “unfair” and warned that in future they may increase the tariff on import of Indian motorcycles to the US.
During discussion he said the recent decision of the Indian government to reduce the tariff from 75 per cent to 50 per cent was not enough and asked that it should be reciprocal, as the US imposes “zero tax” on the import of motorcycles.
“We have so many countries where we make products, and they make products. We pay a tremendous tax to get motorcycles into their countries. But, Harley Davidson goes into certain countries. I won’t mention the fact that it happens to be India, in this case,” Trump said amidst laughter from the audience.
In fact, he also indirectly referred to the recent conversation he had with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard.
“And a great gentleman called me from India and he said, ‘We have just reduced the tariff on motorcycles, reduced it down to 50 per cent from 75 or even 100 per cent’,” Trump said in an apparent reference to his last weeks conversation with Prime Minister Modi.
Harley Davidson Vs Royal Enfield-
It was expected that the comment from Mr. President comes because of the low sales of Harley Davidson in comparison to high sales of Indian motorcycle company Royal Enfield. In terms of Indian sales figures, Harley-Davidson’s is down over 20 per cent in FY 2017. In 2016 Harley-Davidson sold 10,093 bikes in India, as compared to 3,690 bikes in FY 2017.
While Royal Enfield has sold 67,776 bikes in 2017 in comparison to 55,843 bikes in 2016 (a 21% Growth), the unexpected performance & growth of Royal Enfield causes concerns to American motor cycle industry.
RE has sold 5,14,094 two-wheelers in the period of April-November 2017 growing 22 per cent over 4,21,372 units sold in the same time last year.