Trump pitches for zero tariff on US motorcycles ITC to manage hotels, expand in South Asia
Ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Donald Trump has again criticised India's high import tariff on the iconic Harley Davidson motorcycles as "unacceptable", though he acknowledged that his "good friend" slashed the duty by half from 100 per cent.
Trump's comments came as he and Modi have agreed to meet on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan on June 28-29.
Trump, in an interview to CBS News on Monday, said the United States, under his leadership, is a country that can no longer be fooled.
"We're not the foolish country that does so badly. You look at India, very good friend of mine, Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi, you take a look at what they've done, 100 per cent tax on a motorcycle. We charge them nothing," Trump said. Trump was referring to the import tariff on the Harley Davidson motorcycles, an issue that has been close to his heart and wants India to reduce the duty to zero.
"So, when Harley sends over there, they have 100 per cent tax. When they (India) send in — they make a tremendous number of motorcycles — when they send them in, no tax. I called him. I said it's unacceptable," Trump said, referring to his conversation with Prime Minister Modi.
"He (Modi) reduced it by 50 per cent with one phone call. I said it's still unacceptable because it's 50 per cent versus nothing. It's still unacceptable. And they're working on it," he said, hinting the countries are still in talks on the issue. —PTI Kolkata-headquartered diversified conglomerate ITC Ltd has drawn up a capex of Rs 20,000 crore in multiple projects in multiple sectors across the country. Of this as much as Rs 5700 crore is being invested in various projects in West Bengal. The entire amount will be invested over the next few years, ITC Chairman Sanjiv Puri said in Kolkata on Tuesday.
On the sidelines of the launching of the company’s super premium luxury hotel, ITC Royal Bengal, in Kolkata, Puri said going forward, ITC Hotels will be laying increasing thrust on managing hotel properties (mostly upper upscale). At present, the group owns, runs and manages as many as 108 hotel properties under its four hotel brands, another 13-14 are in various stages of construction while another 26-27 are in the pipeline. “We have adopted asset right strategy and will be focusing more on managing properties than building and running Sanjiv Puri
them,” said Nakul Anand, executive director, ITC Ltd. He said that most of these managed properties will be under WelcomHotels brand and most of them will be in upper upscale segment. Some properties will be managed by some other brands as well, he added.
Puri, on his part, said ITC Hotels will expand into India’s immediate neighbours, including Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, where the number of Indian tourists and business guests are higher and guests will have an instant brand recall. ITC Hotels through its joint venture subsidiary Surya Nepal is exploring various options in putting up a hotel there.