NEW DELHI | WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a “reciprocal tax” on countries like China and India if they do not match America’s tariffs, reiterating a warning he had made before while referencing India’s import duties on Harley-Davidson motorcycles.On Friday, the government said the decision by the US to raise import duty on steel and aluminium is discriminatory and will have some impact on India.“Of course, there would be some impact as India is an exporter,” commerce secretary Rita Teaotia said. She said there is “disquiet” as the US has raised duties on certain items beyond the bound rates.These are the rates that countries commit themselves to at the World Trade Organization (WTO) that can’t be exceeded. These are different from applied rates, which are the actual tariffs.The US move is also discriminatory because of selective application, which is against the most-favoured nation concept, Teaotia said.India will, however, wait for the final notification before deciding on its response. “We will wait to see what form it will take,” she said.Trump on Thursday signed a pair of proclamations to levy 25% tariff on steel and 10% tariff on aluminium imported from all countries except Canada and Mexico. The penal tariffs have been imposed on grounds of national security. He repeated the threat about “reciprocal tax” at the signing ceremony.The move came after Section 232 national security reviews by the US Department of Commerce of steel and aluminium. It recommended a tariff of at least 53% on all steel imports from 12 countries — Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Malaysia, Russia, South Korea, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam.India’s aluminium exports to the US in April-December 2017 rose to $445.31 million from $228.98 million in the year-earlier period. Iron and steel exports rose to $266.42 million from $217.55 million during the same period. Teaotia said 17 countries including India have expressed concern over the plans by the US to raise tariffs at WTO’s General Council. The commerce secretary said no other WTO member has used the “security exception” argument as done by the US.“We have to see in what form they are able to justify it,” she said.Canada and Mexico are exempt from the tariffs and the US will allow allies to petition for similar exemptions.Teaotia said India is not a protectionist country and has always kept its import duties within the WTO bound rates.Trump has, in recent days, spoken several times about the 50% duty that India levies on Harley-Davidson bikes. He has repeatedly insisted that the US levies “zero” duty or “nothing” on bikes imported from India.“We’re going to be doing a reciprocal tax programme, at some point so that if China is going to charge us 25% or if India is going to charge us 75% and we charge them nothing,” he said. “They are 50, they are 75 or they are 25, we are going to be doing the same numbers.It’s called reciprocal. It’s a mirror of tags. So they charge us 50, we would charge them 50.” He said American companies had not been treated fairly by other countries.Referring to a tweet by Tesla chief Elon Musk, Trump said China charges 25% duty on American cars whereas it is just 2.5% on import of Chinese cars into the US.Trump said the “reciprocal tax” programme would ensure “fair trade deals” for the US. The US president mentioned China several times as he signed the two proclamations to impose import duties on steel and aluminium. “China says it’s got 2%, but it sends much more.We’re going to have a great relationship, hopefully, with China, but we have to do something. We’re losing with China $500 billion a year. We have to do something,” Trump told reporters.