Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said that US President Donald Trump is well within his rights to state that he wants to change the tariff structure, and India must negotiate right back as it is more than capable enough of working out a decent deal.

Gandhi made these remarks on April 21 during an interactive session at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University in the US. The video of the interaction was uploaded on the YouTube channel of the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs on Saturday.

Gandhi shared a video montage from the interaction and said in a Facebook post on Monday, "India has the scale and the skill. What we need now is a clear vision — to build, to lead, and to show the world that democracy and manufacturing must go hand-in-hand to power the future. Time to move from potential to direction." Speaking at the interaction last month, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said the biggest challenge in front of India today is to create a production system to compete with the Chinese, its manufacturing and creation of jobs.

"India is not going to be able to do that without a liberalised economic system. Anybody who talks about social progress (and) weakening caste structures also has to accept that you need money to do that. And the only way you are going to make money is by having a production system and by having an open liberalised economy," he said.

Asked about his views on Indian government's response to President Trump's tariff move, Gandhi said, "We don't know how is it responding because they (the government) don't tell us these things." Donald Trump is negotiating, and he is well within his rights to negotiate, Gandhi said, adding that "we should negotiate right back." "We should understand what our strengths are, (and) what we need, and we should not compromise in areas that are detrimental to us. He (Trump) is well within his rights to say that he wants to change the tariff structure, and it's a negotiation; it's fine. I think we are more than capable enough to negotiate ourselves a decent deal," he said.

The US and India need to show how they can produce effectively in a democratic environment, he said.

"A partnership between the India and the US on manufacturing and developing a strategy on manufacturing in a democratic environment is something that could be very powerful," Gandhi said.

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